There are so many things that made people anxious with waiting, I barely know where to start.

• For years — years! — we have been without a new Octopus Pie collection. My copy of Listen at Home with Octopus Pie has been thumbed through many times, There Are No Stars in Brooklyn may fall apart if I flip through any longer, and my copies of the self-published first three books must now be handled with museum gloves to not disturb the treasures within¹. And now! New book!
  

  The long-awaited Octopus Pie: Dead Forever is the first new book of OP material since 2011!

  The pre-order period goes until April 15th. If you order during this time, you will be helping to fund the actual printing of the book! Pretty neat.
  Octopus Pie: Dead Forever includes the following chapters from the webcomic:

  … where follows a list of thirteen storylines, from Moving On to Simple Breakfast, including the heart-rending Brownout Biscuit and Octopie Wall Street, which continue to resonate down to the most recent comics. This book could only be better if it included Couch Sitter, the source of Meredith Gran’s most inspired throwaway gag — a cafe with service by handpuppets — but since that was already included in Listen at Home I can’t really complain².

  Dead Forever is now pre-orderable for US$17 signed or US$24 for signed and sketched; shipping is expected in about a month, but Gran will likely have a modest supply to premiere the book at TCAF.

• For months — months! — we have been without a new datapoint in the greatest cultural debate of our times; namely, What is more popular, porn or not-porn? So far, there are two data points, as Smut Peddler 2012 raised US$83,100 in its Kickstarter, where The Sleep of Reason managed US$46,925, making porn 2.17 times as popular as not-porn.

  However! As a data-wrangler of some long practice, I recognize that a population size of two means that our statistical conclusions have a margin of error that is enormous. We need to add more porn and not-porn data before we can have any real confidence in our conclusions. Fortunately, we’re about to get some.

  Behold: Smut Peddler 2014 is now Kickstarting, features the same high totals benefit the creators model as SP2012 and TSOR, and will add to our understanding of this critical question. As per our previous conversations, anthology wrangler par excellence Spike plans to alternate porn and not-porn collections, which means in just another five decades or so, we should know definitively what’s more popular³. Anyhoo, some three hours in SP2014 is 65% funded, which bodes well for the contributors gettin’ a nice bonus check in a couple of months.

• For hours — hours! — earlier today until just a little while ago, Dinosaur Comics had hosting problems and the venerable qwantz.com was down. Society held its breath and somehow came though the dark times, no doubt relieved that a giant among webcomics (by a giant among men) was back in its proper place. Moreso, no doubt, because said giant, Ryan North, had big news to share:
  

  Hey did you see Marvel announced yesterday that I’ll be writing a Young Avengers miniseries for them? I AM EXCITED.

  The only way I see this turning out badly is if North’s now-established comic-book writing skills become so sought-after that he works himself too hard and spirals into a hole of overwork, cocaine brawls, and an untimely death. Otherwise, all good.

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¹ Namely, the hand-applied rendering of sparklebutt.

² Yes I can, every OP collection should include Couch Sitter and holy glob did that story actually start in January 2010 where the crap does time go. I’m old.

³ It’s porn. We all know it’s porn.

Guys. Guys. I don’t know how your Christmas week is going, but as of right now, mine is going great. And by great, I mean full-on creepy and existentially dreadful because I got my copy of Broodhollow Book 1 in the mail and it is so good.

So, in case you hadn’t gotten me a present yet, here is what I want — share this story with me. Start reading Broodhollow from the beginning, if you haven’t previously, and then go to his store and give Kris Straub some money so that he will continue to make Broodhollow. You can get a digital edition now, and I’ll wager that in the not-too-distant future¹, you’ll be able to obtain this handsome volume for your bookshelf, where it will proceed to scare the bejabbers out of your other books. I’m sorry if you were particular attached to the bejabbers of your other books, but that’s just how these things work.

On the off chance that:

1. you have been reading Broodhollow
2. you have already given Kris Straub your money
3. your other books still require some de-bejabbering

May I recommend you step outside of webcomics for a spell and check out Rachel Rising by Terry Moore? Dude’s been self-publishing for decades now, with the absolutely stellar relationship-meets-mob-enforcers Strangers In Paradise and the techno-espionage thriller Echo. Rachel just adds to his genre-hopping, as it deals with a little case of demonic assault on a small town, no big.

Compared to Broodhollow’s interior dread, Rachel is more exterior in its scares (if you take my meaning), but between the two of them, they represent the very best of fright-oriented comics², and what more could you ask for in these days of long nights and wintry chills³?

Rachel (and Echo, and Strangers) is available in print collections or at comiXology, and it gets my highest possible recommendation. Everything I said up there about giving Straub your money also goes for Moore. Now if you’ll excuse me, I still have one or two bejabbers that need removing.

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¹ That is, once the Kickstarter orders have been sent.

² In all likelihood to be joined by The Sleep of Reason, once I get a chance to read it.

³ Northern hemisphere only.

Yesterday was the day that I discovered that porn starlet Tera Patrick (who is apparently a cousin by marriage to a guy I ride EMS with) is signing on the show floor. Go Team Central Jersey.

• Speaking of porn, Smut Peddler impressario Spike confirmed for me that there will be a new edition of the sexytime comics anthology next year, possibly in the spring, maybe in the summer. After that, it looks like alternating porn and not-porn anthologies, with the next not-porn project in 2015, probably on the theme of fantasy, and much like The Sleep of Reason will be restricted to no cliches: TSoR said no vampires, no werewolves, no zombies, and Untitled Fantasy Anthology will say no elves, no dwarves, no Tolkien analogs. In a decade or so of alternating anthologies, we should be able to finally quantify how much people like porn compared to other entertainments.
• Speaking of forthcoming print projects, I got to speak to Evan Dahm about his first Vattu collection, The Name and the Mark; Dahm’s happy to report that the book is at the printers, and well on the way to release in October. In fact, he’ll have a limited number of books to debut at SPX alongside his Midnight Monsters collaboration with Yuko Ota, The Exquisite Beast. SPX is a good book-buying crowd, and having debuts ought to drive a lot of commerce for Dahm, so that’s all right.
• Speaking of Yuko, she and Ananth Panagariya got a nice mention at the Adventure Time Comics panel, seeing as how their Candy Capers miniseries launched last week; BOOM! editor Shannon Watters gave us a some advance details of the next couple of issues, as Peppermint Butler pairs up characters as the new heroes of the Candy Kingdom in Finn & Jake’s absence. The next issue will feature Tree Trunks and Marceline as partners, and the issue after that will partner up Lumpy Space Princess (!) and Lemongrab (!!).

  The bulk of the panel was a discussion of the creative process of Braden Lamb, Shellie Paroline, Ryan North, and Meredith Gran, their approaches to all-ages comics, and their best jobs at doing the voices in live readings. North, Paroline, and Lamb were of course fresh off their Eisner win, so it’s no surprise that in a room that allowed 500, there were few empty seats, and the audience was predominantly there for the current panel, not squatting in the room for some later panel; the wealth of cosplay (especially on younger kids) was proof of this.

  Watters also let us know that there will be another Adventure Time graphic novel penned by Danielle Corsetto and drawn by Zach Sterling; the theme of the series is pretty quickly becoming princesses go on adventures, as the new book will feature LSP facing trials (maybe) and tribulations (possibly) and saving the world (probably not). But hey — one of the messages of Adventure Time is that we can all be more than we appear initially, even spoiled princesses from Lumpy Space.

  In the main Adventure Time comics, the next issue will wrap up the current story arc (it features Jake stuck in a dream existence with a stretchy-powers Finn!), and the one after that will be a Princess Bubblegum-centered story. Peebles stories often feature her need to control and manage everything (from her kingdom to the fundamental forces of physics) and how her messing with Things That Should Not Be Messed With have consequences, but they aren’t usually taken past the end of the episode.

  Prubs is a genius, but she also pretty damn irresponsible with her mad science and her creations are idiotically dangerous as often as they’re helpful. In this new story, PB goes off the rails and actually has to deal with one of these things that she’s responsible for rather than foisting it off on Finn and Jake.

  The Q&A section had time for ten questions, and the first was from a boy maybe ten years old that wanted to know if Ryan knew about a webcomic called Homestuck and does he use it for inspiration?, particularly because of one Homestuck-referencing quote that North snuck into a recent issue. He was apparently unaware that Ryan and Andrew Hussie are credit card bros, and Ryan told the young gentleman that Everything I write is Homestuck fan-fiction. The seriousness of the exchange was honestly charming, as was the number of kids in the audience that had brought binders full of their Adventure Time-themed drawings, eager to show them to the comics creators.

  After the session I got a chance to chat with Braden Lamb, where we immediately fell to talking about Kitty Hawk, his long-hiatused adventure webcomic project with Vincent LaBate. On the one hand, Lamb would love to get back to Kitty Hawk, on the other other, BOOM! projects keep him busy to the point that an ongoing webcomic isn’t practical. A complete story might be a possiblity, but with the releases of stories like Delilah Dirk and Lady Sabre, the market may be a bit crowded, even for a story that predated the others.

  We also spoke about the challenges that Lamb and Paroline had producing the Choose Your Own Adventure Time issue that North penned a while back, making the choices easy for kids to follow, but not so obvious that you could cheat your way to the desired outcome; it probably helped a lot that North has some experience writing such stories, but the best contributor to the success of that issue was probably Lamb’s choice to do some color-coding. Future artists/writers of such stories, take note.

• Speaking of Andrew Hussie, I saw the initial start of the ShiftyLook panel referenced yesterday, and I owe the SDCC showrunners an apology. I very much doubted that the maximum capacity of 170 in room 28DE would be sufficient for the presumed crowd o’ Homestucks that would descend upon Hussie like unto a tsunami, and it turned out that they fit just fine; there was a minimal line outside the room prior to the panel, but a pretty healthy population of fantrolls were already in there for the prior panel¹.

  The panel discussed the Zach Weinersmith²/Dave Shabet collaboration (interactive DigDug), the previously-announced Andrew Hussie-penned MMO (NAMCO High, available pre-holiday, 2015), and the Kris Straub/Scott Kurtz Mappy series (first episode goes live tomorrow).

• Speaking of room 28DE, it would later host the STRIPPED panel, which managed to fill the room despite being scheduled at the late hour of 7:00pm, against large media screenings, ramp-up to industry parties, and pre-Masquerade prep. I have nearly 1500 words of notes that need to be whipped into shape, so let’s put that off for another post. But speaking of STRIPPED, yesterday I learned that co-director Fred Schroeder’s agent is from my town, despite his currently agenting in the nearly polar opposite of LA. Go Team Central Jersey.

Below the cut, the best cosplay photos of the day: Simon Petrikov and Hello Randy.

(more…)

Of course it does, just as I’m trying to get things together for SDCC 2013. Well, let’s see what we’ve got.

• Probably the biggest news of the day is the release of the official Harvey Awards nominees, wherein indy- and web-type creators are killing it:
  • Creator-owned SAGA takes seven nominations, including Best Writer, Best Artist, Best Colorist, Best Cover Artist, Best New Series, Best Continuing or Limited Series, and Best Single Issue or Story.
  • Longtime independent creator Terry Moore has been justly recognized for Rachel Rising, which has unfortunately now gotten fully into the “critical lauded, but nowhere near widely read” territory. Seriously, if you backed The Sleep of Reason or read Broodhollow you should be reading Rachel Rising, which is nominated for Best Cartoonist and Best Continuing or Limited Series.
  • Ed Ryzowski, who colors Evil, Inc, The Gutters, Looking for Group, and Terminals, is nominated for Best Colorist alongside colleagues from Marvel, Image, and Archie.
  • Adventure Time is tabbed for Best New Series (against the aforementioned SAGA and the critically-acclaimed breakout hit of the year, Hawkeye), Special Award for Humor in Comics (okay, that’s actually a nomination for writer Ryan North, who is competing with Jim Zub for Skullkickers among others), and Best Original Graphic Publication for Younger Readers.
  • That last category, Best Original Graphic Publication for Younger Readers? Other nominees include Cow Boy (where artist Chris Eliopoulos is also up for Best Letterer), Amelia Rules, and Drama; this category is an embarrassment of riches.
  • Most directly relevant to this page, the nods for Best Online Comics Work have been given to:
    • Bandette, Paul Tobin and Colleen Coover
    • Battlepug, Mike Norton
    • The Dreamer, Lora Innes
    • Nimona, Noelle Stevenson
    • Sheldon, Dave Kellett

  And that’s just scratching the surface. Every year there’s talk about the Harveys getting gamed by publisher block-voting, but this year appears to feature a hell of a lot of strong work. Fleen congratulates all the nominees.

• Speaking of Broodhollow, it just keeps getting better and better, and the first arc of the ongoing story finished up today and oh man did Kris Straub deliver up a satisfying twist to the story. End of the arc seems a good place to make a book, and coincidentally the Kickstarter for Broodhollow Book One: Curious Little Thing launched about four hours back.

  My guess is that as good as Broodhollow is (and it is very, very good) three days a week, it is going to be even moreso to devastating degree in large chunks. It is one of the most prickling-unease-crawling-at-the-back-of-your-brain stories that you will ever read, and I urge you in the strongest possible terms to back it now. Also, to keep the patterns and check all the doors and look directly at that which haunts you because then it can’t get you.

• Speaking of Ryan North, The AV Club gave an absolutely glowing review to This Is How You Die, which North edited along with Matt Bennardo and David Malki !. Remember, TIHYD drops tomorrow, and if you’re flying to SDCC your mission is to see if it can be purchased in an airport bookstore.
• Speaking of Jim Zub, I’m a little late on this one, but did you see that he’s going to be writing a Samurai Jack comic series for IDW? I don’t feel so bad about him getting jerked around by DC back in January now, since I imagine he’ll have far more creative independence working on Samurai Jack than he would have in an environment driven by editorial fiat.

  In other news, that’s another book I’ll have to add to my pull list come October, and with any luck it’ll go from five-issue miniseries to ongoing. That’s more likely to occur if lots of us buy it, and more Zub is always a good thing, so write yourself a note to buy it when it comes out.

• Lastly, best of luck to the Team Venture crew (a significant fraction of whom are the creators of Little Gamers as they set out on the first leg of their drive to Ulan Bator. You can follow their progress here, where it seems that they’re currently in the Czech Republic, in a corner of the world where Western infrastructure (beer, wifi, democratic regimes) are reasonably common and the countries fit into single time zones. They’ve got a long way to go yet, and vast open countries to cross, and we at Fleen wish them safe travels and sane adventure.

We’ve mentioned a lot of webcomic-centric people and events at SDCC 2103 over the past week or so, and there’s still things to mention.

• ShiftyLook’s off-site events include hours-long Andrew Hussie autograph sessions (Thursday 4:00pm; Friday 3:30pm; Sunday 1:00pm); livecasts with Chris Hastings, Ryan North, and Alex Culang (Thursday 7:00pm), Rob Paulsen and Scott Kurtz (Friday 7:00pm), Zach Weinersmith and Jennifer Hale (Saturday 7:00pm); and spotlight sessions on Mappy with Scott Kurtz and Kris Straub (Saturday 6:00pm) and Wonder Momo with Jim Zub and Erik Ko (Sunday 12:30pm).
• The creators behind SMBC Theatre, Cyanide and Happiness, and other video chucklemongers are going offsite for an evening of japery, lessons learned, and sneak peeks. No Laughs Allowed is sponsored by Callback Comedy and will take place at Reading Cinemas Gaslamp 15 Theater on 5th Street, Saturday at 7:00pm. Get yer tickets now.
• For the third year in a row, Tr!ickster will be providing an offsite space for creator-owned stuff to not be lost in the hell of giant media conglomerates. They’re going to be at East Village Tavern Bowl, about eight blocks from the convention center, from Wednesday afternoon to Sunday.
• For those trapped on the con floor and feeling all desire for continued existence slipping away, [Adult Swim] may actually have a solution for you. Yeah, yeah, panels, famous people, etc., don’t care. Here’s the good stuff:
  

  Fans can also stop by the Adult Swim booth #3721 to enjoy free mini massages and a place to escape from the hectic pace of the convention floor. [emphasis mine]

  Oh man, what if they had a little dark, sound-insulated room with comfy couches? That would rule.

In other news:

• Question of the Ages: Just how much do people like porn? Possible answer, going by the relative amounts raised by the Smut Peddler (porn) and Sleep of Reason (not porn) Kickstarts, run by the same person and featuring many of the same creators: the porn raised US$83,100 and the not-porn raised US46,925, meaning that people preferred porn by a ratio of approximately 1.77:1.

  Another way to look at things? Using the same more-money-raised-means-bigger-bonuses-for-creators scheme, porn makers got paid an extra US$650 to not-porn makers getting US$300 or a 2.17:1 incentive the next time your favorite creator is wondering what the next project should be.

• Finally, a quick note that Fleen should be completing its transition to new hosting this weekend; if you notice anything broken, you can be sure to let me know. Also, I’d like to thank Brad Guigar for putting up a WordPress Newbies Guide today at Webcomics Dot Com … after I’d learned most of his lessons through trial and error. Great timing, Brad!¹

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¹ Awww, like I could be mad at him. C’mere, Brad, give me a hug.

There are few things in this life more certain than Death, Taxes, and the fact that Howard Tayler¹ will have a new update to Schlock Mercenary gracing the intertoobz every dang day, come hell or high water; after all, as of the day after tomorrow it will be thirteen years of miss-free updates, so one comes to expect the pattern to continue. So naturally, I thought it was just me when about 07:10 EDT (GMT-4) I saw Schlock Mercenary was erroring out. Then a while later I saw that others were reporting issues and silently thought Not my circus, not my monkeys. It’s been back for some hours, so let’s all site quietly and think stable server thoughts in Tayler’s direction.

New Kickstarters this morning:

• As mentioned recently, Dante Shepherd is doing page-a-day calendars, meaning you can get 365 versions of Shepherd looking at you in all your most private moments for a whole year, like unto some kind of judgmental, pagan deity. At least, that’s what will happen if his funding campaign (presently about one sixth of the way to goal) succeeds over the next four weeks, which looks pretty likely.
• Master anthology-wrangler Spike kicked all sorts of asses with the delightul pornthology Smut Peddler, particularly with respect to the notion of sharing the wealth and paying her contributors ever more as the funding goals were eclipsed, and it was pretty certain that she would apply the same approach to her forthcoming horror anthology, The Sleep of Reason.

  Today it became official: US$20,000 (the goal) will not only ensure the book is printed, but also means a US$50 bonus for each creator/creator team; every additional US$5000 pledged means another US$50 for each creator, with no cap. Last time, it was an extra US$600 in each bonus; I can hardly think of a better use of excess funds than to reward the creators (and goodness, what a list!) that made the thing that people will love. Pledge.

• For those wondering if the show at the Toonseum in conjunction with Reubens Weekend, the one with original art from 60+ years of Reuben winners, would stay up, the answer is yes:
  

  The ToonSeum, Pittsburgh’s Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art will be exhibiting seven decades’ worth of original art from cartooning’s highest honor, The Reuben Award. The exhibit runs through August 11th 2013.

  I actually got that bit of information a week ago, and I apologize for neglecting it in the meantime. Fortunately, you’ve still got two months to make your way to the riverfront arts district of Pittsburgh and enjoy some rarely-seen treasures.

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¹ My evil twin.

Hoo boy, where to start? Since we spoke last on Friday, the following things have occurred:

• In their continuing march to dominate independent artist merchandising, TopatoCo now has its own building, which is being leased from Sheriff Pony LLC¹. As a measure of the growth of TopatoCo, consider this brief history from TopatoCo Vice President of Kicking Ass and Taking Names Holly Rowland:
  

  It may not look like much, but it is a huge deal to us. Ten years ago, TopatoCo was a shelving unit in Jeffrey’s bedroom in Oklahoma. Seven years ago, it was a third of an office space. Five years ago, it was one full office space. As of now it is four consecutive spaces, five employees, fifty three clients, a 44” giclee’ fine art printer, and a publishing imprint.

  We have big plans for 2013. Stay tuned.

• In her continuing march to dominate independent artist themed anthology collections, Spike announced the contributors to The Sleep of Reason, a list which includes the likes of Aaron Diaz², Evan Dahm, and Carla Speed McNeil, three creators whose world-building will lend itself towards the creeptacular.

  Not convinced? How about KC Green, and Sophie Goldstein, whose work often tends towards the cutely humorous with an underscore of sorrow verging on menace? Not convinced yet? How about the no-brainer of the year, the woman whose work is the definition of atmospheric, existential fear-inducing dread, Emily Carroll? Oh, and 22 other creators/creator teams, including Spike herself. This one is going to rock any sock left tragically unrocked by Smut Peddler.

• Ryan Estrada, last mentioned as stretching outside webcomics via the medium of an online gameshow, has announced a launch date for Asking For Trouble: Thursday, 10 January (that would be this week) at 9:00pm EST. I know that the event invite says Japan Standard Time (GMT+9) instead of Eastern Standard Time (GMT-5), but I’ve confirmed with Estrada that it’s EST.
• Danielle Corsetto, last mentioned as stretching outside webcomics via two graphic novels she’s writing, has announced the first of them as an Adventure Time original graphic novel, to be illustrated by Zack Sterling, entitled Playing With Fire. It’ll be the story of Flame Princess’s romance with Finn, clock in at 160 pages, and show up in April. Sharp eyed readers may note that Corsetto is working on two graphic novels, but I’ve confirmed with her that the second is not another AT book; it will be an original story for another publisher.
• Returning from hiatus: Jim Zub and Shun Hong Chan’s Makeshift Miracle, moving on to what will form the second volume of the rewritten series. Less a return and more a new-material launch: Dave Roman’s Astronaut Academy will shortly have a second volume, and it’s serializing courtesy of publisher :01 Books. And because Roman loves you, Astronaut Academy: Re-Entry already has 25 pages of story ready for your enjoyment.
• The definitive numbers for Child’s Play 2012 came out on Friday, and the result is staggering: more than five million dollars were raised last year, eclipsing the prior year’s record by nearly 50%. For reference, the Child’s Play history looks like this (all figures in US dollars):
  

  2003: $250,000
  2004: $310,000
  2005: $605,000
  2006: $1,024,000
  2007: $1,300,000
  2008: $1,434,377
  2009: $1,780,870
  2010: $2,294,317
  2011: $3,512,345
  2012: $5,085,761
  To date: $17,596,670

  Not a bad first decade all at all.

• Finally, sneaking in just before press time, Bernie Hou announced on Twitter that Comic Chameleon (last mentioned three weeks back) is opening its submission process so that more creators can get in on the webcomics reading app that doesn’t screw them over. Looks like launch on CC is getting close.

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¹ Sheriff Pony LLC exists as a distinct entity from The Topato Corporation for reasons of Business.

² The Tolkien Scholar Par Excellence.

Rich Burlew continues to heal his sliced-up thumb as fast as willpower allows¹, but both new comics and progress on the many, many projects related to his Kickstarter² remain fairly well stalled at the moment. But a simmering secret project (that didn’t require direct involvement to the same degree as other items) has come to fruition that ought to satisfy the most die-hard Order of the Stick fans: the first in-scale tabletop game miniature, eventually to become a full line. Roy Greenhilt comes unpainted, with multiple eyebrow options, and is as near a perfect projection into three dimensions of Burlew’s stick-figure style as could ever be expected. No word yet on who the second figure will be, but personally I’m hoping for a sexy, shoeless god of war.

• Missed in the superstorm: the recently-announced, Spike-led horror anthology did indeed open up for submissions as scheduled and is accepting story proposals for another sixteen days. Note that you don’t have to have a comic done by then, just get your story pitch in — the actual submission isn’t due until May. In case you’re wondering if The Sleep of Reason is a cool enough project for you to get involved in, check out the murderers row of already-confirmed participants and wonder how it could possibly get any better³.
• How about something a bit more hopeful, but still with enough darkness to keep it from being all weak tea? The New York International Children’s Film Festival announced the return of their annual Studio Ghibli retrospective for five full weeks starting 16 November and running until 20 December. Week one’s schedule is already posted, featuring screenings (in new 35mm prints, both dubbed and subbed) of Nausicaä, Laputa, Totoro, Princess Mononoke, and Spirited Away. If you’ve never seen these films on the big screen, you’re missing out; if you’ve never seen these films, period, what the hell is wrong with you?
• If we move further away from the darkness to where there is only sunny optimism and gentle humo[u]r, I’m pleased to note that I received my copies (one to keep, one to give to the next first-time parent I know) of The Bear in yesterday’s mail, and dang if it isn’t beautiful. I’m not sure how much direction Ryan Sohmer gave to Becky Dreistadt in the choice of animals and staging each of the little vignettes he wrote but if he’s smart (and Sohmer is very smart) he got out of her way and let her imagination run wild. Because dang, have I mentioned what you get when Becky’s imagination runs wild?

  In any event, it’s a gorgeous book, and I am encouraged by rumo[u]rs I hear that there will be a The Bear 2, as that means more animal paintings from Dreistadt, and if there’s one thing that a nation (and world) badly divided by petty dislikes and prejudices needs, it’s more of her animal paintings. You literally cannot maintain a bad mood looking at these. The only downside to a second volume? Sohmer and Dreistadt had to sign nearly 4000 copies of The Bear; I’m figuring a second book could easily double that, leading one or both to possibly have an arm fall off and nobody wants that. Just in case, the magic word is Xam! Really.

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¹ Which is roughly the same speed if willpower is taken out of the equation. Honestly, thinking at a sliced tendon doesn’t do much at all.

² Of which, to be fair, several were clearly labeled at the time of the Kickstart as This will get done some considerable time in the future after the easier things to fulfill to the most people are done.

³ Answer: if Terry Moore decided to get involved somehow; seriously, Rachel Rising disturbs me on a deep, existential level every damn month.

Boo! Did I startle you? No? Well, it’s good that you have a stout heart, as today is full of scarifying scares that are very scary. Boo.

• First up, Spike has decided that the natural followup to her phenomenally successful and dirty (in the best possible way), filthy (ditto) Smut Peddler anthology is to shift from the erotic to something a bit more thanatotic: a horror anthology to be entitled The Sleep of Reason. Much like Smut Peddler, The Sleep of Reason¹ will feature an open submission process, with details around Halloween, so if you have ideas for spooky stories, now’s the time to start developing them.

  But don’t get too far ahead of yourself — while Spike’s made it known that she’s looking for full-page comic work (and legit scary, please) — things like minimum or maximum lengths are still unannounced. Since it’s Spike that we’re talking about, it’s paying work, with contributions due in May 2013, and publication to follow (judging from Smut Peddler’s example, probably around November or December). So if you think that you can bash together a visual story as disturbing as, say, Emily Carroll’s work, keep your eyes on Spike’s twitterfeed for further news.

• Know what’s lost some of its original, terrifying nature? Mermaids. Lure you to your death beneath the waves, or to be dashed upon the rocks? Lost to time, reduced to shilling Starbucks. The menace of mermaids is lost to nearly everybody, with only occasional reminders that mermaids were not always very nice. Still, it can’t all be doom and gloom, and Mark Siegel’s decided to celebrate the imminent release of his own menacing mermaid story with a goofy little story, complete with double entendre title.
• Sometimes, the monsters are real. They lay in wait, they demand their tolls, and then they … do nothing, actually. If! You! Dare! read the story of one brave man, the abyss he stared into, and the monstrously indifferent treatment that he received, treatment that would have driven a lesser man to madness, despair, and death! It’s seriously spooky; no, really.²

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¹ Per Spike, the title is taken from a piece by Goya entitled The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters. Creepy, but I always was more of a Hieronymus Bosch man myself; standing before his magnificent Last Judgement in the Groeningemuseum you simply cannot look at the center panel and not take away deep meaning. For me, the principal lesson was Screw not with the bunnies of the Apocalypse. Don’t even get me started on The Garden of Earthly Delights Heck of a weirdo, ol’ Jerry B.

² Okay, not that spooky, but c’mon, it’s Guigar. PS: Boo.a href=