The webcomics blog about webcomics

Calm, Meet Storm

Of course, there are storms, and then there are storms, and terrifying as your basic sharknado is, I’m not sure that it’s actually scarier than the five-day pop-culture death-march that is San Diego Comic Con, which will be kicking off a little more than 120 hours from now. We’ve mentioned who’s going to be there, where to find them, and what panels to attend, so all that’s remaining is getting everybody out to SoCal and preparing for the onslaught.

Actually, one last clarification regarding SDCC exhibitors is warranted: What Pumpkin, the business arm of Andrew Hussie’s personal brain fancies, is in fact going to be there. I had no luck finding them in the exhibitor lists, but that’s because I didn’t read between the lines carefully enough in the ShiftyLook offsite announcement. Not only will Andrew Hussie be doing autograph sessions at the Gaslamp Hilton terrace, What Pumpkin will be engaged in acts of boothing there.

 


 

For those looking for things to do after the Great Westerly Nerd Migration, The Toonseum just announced that their third annual specialty beer has reached fruition: the 2013 edition of Illustration Ale by Pittsburgh’s East End Brewing Company is a bottle-conditioned Belgian-style ale, limited to 1500 bottles, with six different labels from local Pittsburgh artists.

East End Brewing and the ToonSeum will unveil the 2013 Illustration Ale with a special tasting session at the ToonSeum on August 3rd. Guests will not only get the first sips of the special brew, but will also be able to meet past and present label artists, have their bottles autographed, and enjoy the current exhibit, 65 Years of Legends: Six Decades of the Reuben Awards.

Tickets to the tasting are $25.00 and include one free bottle of from the artist of your choosing; fun times start at 7:00pm.

 


 

Final note before we call it a week: Fleen’s domain shift will take place over the weekend, so if you can’t find us, give DNS a chance to propagate and maybe clear your browser cache. If you find any problems in the new site, let us know in the comments. We already know about the following:

  1. The mail form on the contact page needs configuring.
  2. Ditto the RSS feed (we’ll let you know when it’s time to resubscribe).
  3. Images associated with posts before the end of August 2008 won’t be there; this isn’t associated with the server shift, I noticed it on the old server as well. As near as I can tell, the images are all still in the media library, but the HTML code that includes them in the appropriate postings is gone from the database. I expect that I’ll have time to recreate those approximately never.

That’s it. Enjoy your weekend, and see a whole mess o’ you next week.

Today’s Sign Of The Apocalypse

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.

Two Days Without Footnotes? I Must Be Slipping

Readers of this page may recall that we at Fleen (which readers of this page will surely know is just a fancy-pants way of referring to me as there ain’t really anybody else ’round these parts) have participated in a peripheral way with the National Cartoonists Society’s annual division awards re: webcomics, and may also recall that the NCS gives out said awards during Memorial Day weekend (which I was privileged to attend last year).

What you might not recall is that this year, the NCS is doing something really neat in conjunction with Reubens Weekend that is pretty awesome. Given that said weekend is taking place in Pittsburgh, it’s a no-brainer that the NCS would team up with the home-town comics heavyweight, The Toonseum. More specifically, The Toonseum (in conjunction with San Francisco’s Cartoon Art Museum, also a favorite of this page) will be having an exhibition of original artwork by Reuben winners, nearly 70 years worth:

This is the first time in the organization’s history that original art from these legendary artists has been assembled in one exhibition. Rare works seldom seen by the public from artists such as Gary Larson of Far Side, Charles M. Schulz of Peanuts, and many more will be displayed.

The exhibit is part of a celebration of comic and cartoon arts as the National Cartoonists Society brings their annual conference to Pittsburgh for the first time.

A special VIP fundraising opening reception will take place on Thursday, May 23rd as part of a weekend-long celebration of the comic and cartoon arts. Information on the VIP event tickets can be found at http://comicvip.eventbrite.com/.VIP tickets also include reserved seating for panel discussions on Sunday, May 26th, a signed limited edition print, meet and greet, and much more!

For everybody else, The Toonseum will be turning its corner of Pittsburgh into a street party on the 900 block of Liberty Avenue on Sunday, 26 May, from noon to 5:00pm. Street fun is free, and the usual five dollar admission price gets you into The Toonseum for the exhibit (and signings with many, many artists), and twenty bucks will get you into panel discussions at the Bricolage Theater.

If you live anywhere near Pittsburgh, I cannot urge you strongly enough to try to take in this show. What the heck, it’s a long weekend, you can skip one afternoon of cookouts for a once-in-a-lifetime event like this. Sadly, I’ve got EMT duty that weekend (everybody’s got to do their turn on holidays), so you’ll have to tell me how it was.

It’s Randy-Centric

I guess given how long I’ve been doing this¹ and how much I’ve written², I suppose it was inevitable that one day would events would conspire to suggest the theme “Randy”.

  • First up, the Toonseum continues to have some of the most aggressively eclectic programming of any museum I’ve ever heard of (remember their collaboration with the Musuem of Uncut Funk?), and are continuing that tradition on Saturday, 1 December with the Kids Christmas Cartoonfest. Holiday special episodes³ run from noon, there’s a singalong at 4:30, crafts all day, storytelling, and Santa. Five bucks per person.

    So how does this fit into the “Randy” theme? Because the special guest for the afternoon will be actor Ian Petrella who appeared in A Christmas Story as … Randy! Oh, stop acting all disappointed that it isn’t Ralphie, you’ll still buy a ticket for the Red Ryder BB Rifle raffle.

  • Secondly,and more Randy-oriented, Uncle Randy has a present for you. I believe that I’m on record as greatly admiring all the comics by Randy Milholland, but I’m especially taken by the (approximately annual) Super Stupor comics, as they take up stray strands from the (very occasional) Super Stupor online comics and spin them out to wonderful stories that really make cape comics appealing.

    Seriously, I’ve enjoyed Super Stupor #1-4 more than any superhero comic from the big publishers in maybe ten years because Milholland does more to make me care about characters in a one-shot issue than the past seven decades of neverending same-old interspersed with continuous EVENTS! THAT! CHANGE! EVERYTHING!

    It’s been long enough since Super Stupor #4 that I was wondering if #5 was ever coming along when lo and behold: yesterday Milholland dropped the first page of what would have been issue #5, but instead he’s decided to post online for free.

    Which means two things:

    1. Come back to the Super Stupor site for the next, I’ma say twenty days or so, and enjoy the story. Based on this first page, it doesn’t appear that Milholland’s using his established characters to the same degree as previous issues, so if you don’t know who Toy Boy, Punchline, Arch-Angela, Rumble Bee, Eye-Sore, or Big Killhuna are, you’ll do just fine.
    2. I need to get in touch with Randy and find out how much he wants for the art of this first page (and here I thought I’d never want a drawing of Mitt Romney in my home). If you enjoy the story, you might want to buy a little something from him, too.

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¹ Going on seven years.

² Goodness, if I skip Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day, I’ll round out this year with 2000 posts; I wonder how many words that comes to.

³ Oh man maybe they’ll have A Christmas Special featuring He-Man and She-Ra! Or — dare I hope? — The Star Wars Holiday Special featuring an especially coked-out Carrie Fisher and Bea Arthur!

Still Crunching Numbers

Yeah, still working on my latest Kickstarter thing; there’s 38 separate projects I’m including in this one, so it’s taking a while. So let me point you at some brief items of interest.

  • Firstly, I want to show two ways you can purchase the first collection¹ of A Girl And Her Fed (by K. Brooke “Otter” Spangler) in PDF form: 1, 2. One may note that both copies of Rise Up Swearing contain the full content of the print book, minus the bonus art on the get-Otter-to-sketch-this-page page, because hey, no pages. They are in all ways identical, except for the price.

    One of these versions is identified as To Own (for US$5.00), and one as To Give To A Friend (for US$2.50). Naturally, there’s no way for Otter to tell whether the copy is for you or for somebody else, you’re on the honor system here. I actually think this is a great way to get an established member of your audience to help spread the world-of-mouth to people that may like a comic, by making it easier for them to do so. It’s a PDF, so the production costs are already sunk from the print version; getting half the usual price is better than none, when pretty much by definition it’s going to somebody that never would have bought it in first place due to not knowing about it; in the case that new somebody likes it, they may well become a paying customer in the future. I’d be surprised if I didn’t see this model adopted by other creators.

  • Attention, residents of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and surrounding areas: Andy Runton² is coming to see you next week. On Saturday, 16 June, Runton will be at the ToonSeum³ at 1:00pm for a demonstration and signing. No special charge for the event, but there is the regular admission fee to the ToonSeum which is only five bucks if you’re 13 or older and one single dollar for children 6 and over. That’s as good as free, and Andy captivates kids as well as anybody this side of Patrick McDonnell. Grab yer kid, grab yer Owly books, and go meet a humble, talented guy who will most definitely put a smile on your face.
  • Attention, residents of Boulder, Colorado and surrounding areas: Chris Yates isn’t coming to see you, on account of he lives there. But he will be dropping by FACTORY|Made creative lab/design incubator to teach a workshop of wooden puzzle making. The fun starts on Sunday, 17 June from 12:00 noon to 6:00pm; tools and materials provided, just bring your imagination and a willingness to get all swoopy and curvy with a scroll-saw. I imagine room will be limited so that participants aren’t sitting around all afternoon waiting for their turn, so advanced registration is recommended; call FACTORY|Made at 303 927 0802 and please note the US$60 registration fee. If you’re uncertain as to whether or not Yates makes stuff that’s up your alley, check out his work here (where, I hear through the grapevine, he’s having a sale).

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¹ Disclaimer: I wrote the foreword for this book, but I don’t get anything out of pimping it here, other than a sense of satisfaction that a work I really like might find another reader or two.

² Who, yeah, technically doesn’t do a webcomic but Owly is great and it’s in the spirit of independent owners and it’s my blog so shut up.

³ Who, yeah, aren’t devoted to webcomics either, but they do a lot of good exhibits and events and they got the funk.

Maybe Time To Break Out The Log Scale?

Thanks to Darren Gendron (himself no stranger to Kickstarter campaigns) and his well-researched comment of yesterday, we can now track which All-Time Highest-Funded Kickstaters Ever have fallen to Rich Burlew’s majesty. Answer: all but five.

The jump from sixth place to fifth is pretty major, though — while OoTSDrive12 has added nearly US$40K since this time yesterday (to an as-of-this-writing US$394,188), fifth place requires clearing a hurdle of US$486,518. So, another two or three days at the present pace. Because I simply can’t keep up with the monstrous growth, from this point on I’ll restrict reporting to when Burlew crosses one of those Top Five lines (and there’s a big gap between fourth place and third), or when something particularly humorous happens in the storyline of his updates.

  • In news that doesn’t relate to Rich Burlew getting a big damn check¹ in three weeks or so, I’m guessing that most of you have at least seen a reference to an astonishing comic done by French artist Boulet that exploded through the web-o-sphere yesterday. If you haven’t seen it yet, you need to right now. It is, in no particular order:
    1. hilarious
    2. amazingly drawn
    3. a product of the recent Angoulême festival, drawn as a 24 hour comic

    Okay, fine, Boulet confesses that he went over by two hours to finish it. Now go back and tell me that any normal human could produce that story (remember, no prep work before the 24 hours starts!) on an improvisational basis. I think we know where Boulet stands on the famed comics progression of First you get good, then you get fast, then you get good and fast².

  • Whatcha doing Saturday night? If you’re in western Pennsylvania (specifically, in/around Pittsburgh), why not drop in on the ToonSeum? They’re repeating one of the best comics cross-promotions in the history of ever by once again partnering with Pittsburgh’s own East End Brewing Company³ to release a 700-bottle limited run of Belgian-style Illustration Ale.

    Like the May 2010 run of Illustration, each bottle will bear a label designed by one of six local cartoon artists, and a portion of the proceeds will benefit the ToonSeum. Illustration Ale debuts on 4 February, 6:00pm, with a bottle and ToonSeum admission included in the ticket price ($30; $20 for members, available at the desk or online).

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¹ Anytime you hit Buy me a house territory, it’s a big damn check.

² Dave Sim; yes, the guy’s got some terrible personal views of how life works, but he’s absolutely right about that one.

³ “Pittsburgh’s micro-est microbrewery”.

The Somewhat Different Envelope, Please

Once again, I’m assuming that most of you have seen this by now, but there’s been an amendment to the requirements of the new NCS award in the Online Comic Strip Division. Namely, the requirement:

5. Creator must earn the greater part of their living directly from the strip/property

has been altered to:

5. Creator must earn the greater part of their living directly from cartooning in order to adhere to the NCS criteria that creators under consideration must be either full members or eligible for full membership

It wasn’t the intent that nominees in this new division be required to meet more stringent requirements than in the others; I don’t think any of us on the committee were reading the old #5 as meaning anything other than the new #5, but in situations like this it’s important to make sure that what you write is as unambiguous as possible. Thanks to Tom Richmond for clarifying, and don’t be surprised if other clarifications become necessary¹.

  • As long as we’re on the topic, I feel it useful to point out a couple of thinky pieces written since yesterday’s post on this award and the focus of this blog; thanks to Dave Kellett and Holly Post, respectively, for their wise words. Dave and Holly both opine that the use of “webcomics” as a word that distinguishes from “comics” is silly², as it distinguishes a model of distribution as being distinct from medium itself³. I fully expect that I will continue to use The W Word well past its generally-accepted sell-by date, turning into a latter-day example of your embarrassing great-uncle whose vernacular is stuck 50 years in the past; I apologize for any future offense I may give.
  • In fact, let’s broaden out from “webcomics” by pointing out that Pittsburgh’s ToonSeum has an interesting show opening next week, one whose press release scared the crap out of me because the subject line read

    Funky Turns 40 at the ToonSeum

    which immediately made me think it was an exhibit of Funky CancerCancer. In fact, it’s about the first wave of positive black animated characters in the 1970s, which means one thing: Fat Albert, possibly including the early episodes which borrowed heavily from Cosby’s standup routines4. Funky Turns 40 is co-curated by Pamela Thomas of the Museum of Uncut Funk, which is the greatest name for a museum ever; the show opens 18 January and runs until 10 March.

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¹ But please do spare me any See? They’re just making it up as they go along in order to screw over [insert grievance here]! We’re doing our best to work out kinks (cf: yesterday’s post, the part about perfect and done), and you can bet that every other NCS division award went through these stumbles, but it was so long ago that nobody remembers.

² A opinion I have expressed myself in the past and am entirely sympathetic to, if only I could come up with a short, obvious word that identifies the things that I write about here. I love all kinds of comics, but this page concerns itself almost exclusively with independent, creator-owned, self-distributed examples of such, and a signifier is just useful. I swear, come up with a term (or even an acronym) that’s brief, and I’ll use it.

³ Not that such distinctions are always worthless; I listen to a fair number of radio shows as podcasts.

4 Rousing game of Buck Buck, anyone?

Today’s Forecast: Uplifting Frolic And Cavortment

I think it says something (not sure what exactly, but something for sure) that I did a Google search on cavortment to make sure I got the Zappa quote right, and the first hit was a four and a half year old post from this very blog. Another man might take this as a sign that he needed to not throw so many semi-oblique references to Thing-Fish into his writing, but I am not that man. Onwards to the void.

  • Uplift: One may have noticed a comic that Tony Piro did about a year ago that homages a familiar scene to make a point about religion and such. This particular cartoon has been appropriated numerous times by people that don’t understand the difference between Draw something that references Sparky while making my own point and Just erase Piro’s name and pretend I did it. Piro himself has come to accept that there’s no point in trying to police jerks:

    It’s probably one of the best received things I’ve ever drawn. But its success has also resulted in many people altering it for their own purposes, erasing my URL and replacing it with their own, and ruining what I think was originally a positive statement.

    I could attempt to police these copies, but ultimately this is impossible to do on the internet, especially once images start spreading on social sites like Facebook.

    But there is an upside:

    Even if I cannot eliminate these other copies, together we can drown them out by spreading a superior message.

    Please help me by sharing this comic anyway you can. Post it to your blog, on Twitter, on Facebook page, or even email it to friends and family. In keeping with the spirit of the season, for every 500 page views the comic gets between now and the end of the year, I will donate $1 to Doctors Without Borders. Thank you for your continued support!

    Spreading an original to drown out inferior shadows, and supporting a worthy charity at the same time? It’s a deal.

  • Frolic: Today is the second (pre-zumnably¹ annual) Feel Free To Talk To Me If I’m Wearing A Dinosaur Comics Shirt Day, so get out there and make some friends, dammit. One place you might be sure to make those friends is at the Dinosaur Comics Combo-Platter Book Launch/Holiday Party at Pauper’s Pub in Toronto. Word has it that Ryan North² has a brother who is a professional brewer and he will be bringing special beers so you really want to be there.
  • Cavortment: We at Fleen have run many a story tying to San Fransisco’s Cartoon Art Museum and Pittsburgh’s ToonSeum, but never have we had cause to bring both into a single story until now. In approximately six hours, Pittsburgh and San Fransisco will meet in some kind of Monday Night Sportball contest³, and the respective honchos of CAM and TS (Andrew Farago and Joe Wos); have tied their sacred honor to whichever team manages to do the most points:

    As the Pittsburgh Steelers and San Francisco 49ers face off on the football field, the cities’ cartoon museums are getting in on the gridiron action too. The San Francisco Cartoon Art Museum’s Curator Andrew Farago and Pittsburgh’s ToonSeum Director Joe Wos have issued a friendly wager based on the outcome of the December 19th Monday night game. The losing team’s fan will visit the other city’s museum and conduct a cartooning workshop while wearing the opposing team’s jersey. Will Joe Wos don Joe Montana’s colors? Will Farago suit up like Franco?

    Andrew Farago, author of the The Looney Tunes Treasury and curator of the San Francisco-based Cartoon Art Museum has outlined specific directions that he will only wear a classic 1970s Steelers jersey in the event of a 49ers loss. Joe Wos, director of the ToonSeum, has not outlined any specific jersey requirements as up until the bet he hadn’t realized San Francisco even had a football team.

    Okay! Smack talk between cartoon nerds! I think we can all agree, whoever wins in this contest4, I think we can all agree that the loser is just begging for a wedgie.

Editor’s note: I was going to have something here about Howard “Evil Twin” Tayler’s amazing Kickstarter campaign for the Schlock Mercenary boardgame — #2 slot for boardgames in Kickstarter history, over US$82,000 raised on a goal of US$25,000, having to come up with new over-goal rewards, etc., but unfortunately I just couldn’t make it fit in the three-part theme for today’s post. So I didn’t bring it up. Sorry, Howard.

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¹ Prologue, Zappa, Willis5, et. al.

² He’s dreamy.

³ Possibly foobaw.

4 Which may involve a place called The frozen tundra of Lambeau Field, which sounds like there should be some Nazgûl guarding it.

5 Ike, not David.

Does This Make It A “Fuck Yeah Friday”?

Evan Dahm declared it’s Achewood Fanart Day and kicked it off good. There may be more on Twitter by the time you read this. That would be great. Not only is it Friday, but it’s been a long week and my wife’s out of town which means as soon as I’m out of here I’m in for hell of naps. Let’s hit it.

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¹ Not really, but I’d kick in a significant chunk of money towards its completion if that were the case.

² Where I’m told one actually goes out back to dig up shins — cartooning and grave defiling have often gone hand in hand, historically speaking.

³ Keep circulating the tapes.

Did I Say “Over”? I Meant New Beginnings

Bobwhite comes full circle, but at the same time, Magnolia Porter launches Monster Pulse (MWF, with an eight page extravaganza of first-day goodness). It’s the story of Bina Blum, derided for her imagination and fascination with dinosaurs, and the weird spectral force that appears to take up residence within her immediate vicinity and manifest as a monstrous critter. I’m guessing misunderstandings and beastie-wrangling are on deck, and can’t wait to find out if I’m right.

Meanwhile, not being content with launching a new webcomic the very day that her previous effort wrapped, Ms Porter teamed up with Kel McDonald for Dracula Mystery Club. n&eacut;e Cocksuckers (per a discussion at NEWW2), renamed (because honestly, they’ll get less grief for being two young women working on a comic that’s not called Cocksuckers, per a discussion at MoCCA Fest). And did I say two young women? It’s three young women, with Amanda Lafrenais contributing toning and websitery. Look for story pages to start on Thursday.

  • Not entirely webcomics related, but how can I resist? The ToonSeum (Pittsburgh’s contribution to the preservation of all we hold dear) sent along the best press release of the year:

    Joe Wos, Executive Director of the ToonSeum, Pittsburgh’s Museum of Cartoon Art, is taking his show on the road. Best known for his work as a cartoonist and storyteller working with children and families, Joe is giving his work a grown up twist! The Charles M. Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa California will be offering a special wine/beer tasting and cartooning workshop for adults!

    This is the first time the museum has offered this unique pairing. Guest will enjoy a flight of beers courtesy of Lagunitas Brewery and wine from Balletto Vineyards while learning to draw their own cartoons. [emphasis mine]

    I’ve remarked many times that I should learn to draw and pick up at least some rudimentary cartooning skills at some point in my life. My failure to do so is only partly because of the fullness of my schedule; to be honest, more of it is me dreading the absolutely terrible output that will accompany early efforts, perhaps for a long, long time. But boozing up while first learning? That’s got to lower the inhibitions and get you started down the road. If only I lived on the Left Coast, I would be at this SO HARD you guys. The fun kicks off at 6:30pm, 17 June (that’s a Friday) at the Schulz Museum; $15.00 for members, $20.00 for non-members.

  • I have news of another melding of previously-unmelded areas of expression. Since cartoons + booze is taken, how about webcomic + stage presentation?

    This year’s Ottawa Fringe Festival will feature a stage adaptation of Subnormality by Winston Rowntree. Conceptualized by Marie Robertson, writer of last year’s Love In The Time of Harlequin and adapted from the original text by Sarah McEown and Sarah Newton, the show is based on multiple scenes pulled directly from the webcomic.

    Show-specific information may be found at Subnormalshow, and tickets are available at the OFF website for a half-dozen presentations between 17 and 26 June.