A number of things happened while we’ve been going through the 2019 #ComicsCamp recap; for example, TCAF and a book that I loved, loved, loved released (review coming). A catch-up, then, for you.

There’s not one, not two, but three comics events take place in different corners of the continent starting tomorrow.

• Out in California, you’ve got NCSFest on the pier and surrounding public areas of Huntington Beach; it’ll be a Euro-style public festival, and feature the naming of this year’s Reuben Awards on Saturday. Follow the likes of Brad Guigar and Los Angeles resident Dave Kellett for news on the ground.
• In Vancouver, you’ve got VanCAF kicking off on Saturday, with appearances expected from Abby Howard, Alina Pete, Ben Passmore, Boya Sun, Catie Donnelly, Cloudscape Comics, Emily Carroll, Evan Dahm, Faith Erin Hicks, Gigi DG, Haley Boros, Heather Gilbraith, Kazu Kibuishi, Kel McDonald, Kory Bing, Lars Brown, Mariko Tamaki, Matthew Bogart, Molly Muldoon, Msassyk, Pia Guerra, Ryan North, Sam Logan, Sarah Becan, Sloane Leong, Steve LeCouilliard, Steve Rolston, Tony Cliff, and Zac Thompson. That’s just the name I recognized on a fast pass over the guest list, and that means there’s even more creators that I (and maybe you) don’t know yet and get to discover.
• And in New York tomorrow and Saturday, the biennial Queers & Comics Conference takes place at the School of Visual Arts. If you want to go to an event that’s all sessions, it’s US$20 to register for the whole shebang. Panelists on various topics include Mariko Tamaki (who may be jetlagged, so be kind to her in Vancouver), Magdalene Visaggio, Alison Wilgus, Beth Barnett, Phil Jimenez, Rachel Pollack, Karen Green, Josh Trujillo, Paige Braddock, Kori Michele Handwerker, Blue Delliquanti, Jay Edidin, Sophie Labelle, Sam Orchard, Gina Gagliano, Tony Breed, Bill Roundy, and a whole bunch of folks whose names I don’t recognize. I’m going at least on Friday. I may or may not be writing up my experience; I suspect that I’ll be shutting up, listening and pointing you to a bunch of people’s work.

Speaking of pointing to people’s work, there were creators I met at Camp¹ whose work is new to me, and you should check it out. In no particular order, then: Anastasia Longoria, AnneMarie Rogers, Michael DiPetrillo, Leila del Duca, Jessi Jordan, Colin Andersen, Beth Barnett, Megan Baehr, Ally Colthoff, Tori Rielly, Bekka Lyn, Payton F, The Giant Rat, and Lily Williams.

And if you read this page you damn well better know who Tillie Walden is, but her UK publisher has put together a starter kit of her tricky-to-find first three books (she was only able to sell me two of them in Alaska). Okay, might not want to spring for the shipping if you’re not already in the UK/Europe (on this side of the pond, there’s a limited supply at Retrofit), but I thought I should point out that she had books before Spinning and that you should get them.

That should do for now. I’ll try to get something together for tomorrow, but the Q&C Conference is going to take up pretty much the whole day.

Spam of the day:

Introducing the brand new Ho’oponopono Certification…Secrets that bring you to “zero.”

Oh yes, pair of white guys, please tell me more about how you have decided that you are the official deciders of how to properly enact a traditional Hawai’ian practice. That’s totally cool of you.

_______________
¹ You didn’t think I was really done just because I’d talked about everything that happened, did you?

Since we spoke last week, the Toronto Comic Arts Festival has announced a slew of new guests, and I’ve gone through the exhibitor’s list to see who-all is gonna be there. Strap in, there’s a lot to see.

On the Featured International Guest list, TCAF have announced Brazilian twin superstars Gabriel Bá & Fábio Moon, Daria Bogdanska, Alexandre Clerisse, Aimee de Jongh, Keiron Gillen, Stephanie Hans, Nora Krug, and Jamie McKelvie. The Featured Kids Guests are yet to be announced (apart from the previously-announced Lucy Knisley).

Exhibitors on the floors of the TRC will include Boum, Tony Cliff, Danielle Corsetto, Evan Dahm, Blue Delliquanti, Megan Rose Gedris, Maddi Gonzalez, Meredith Gran, Mike Holmes, Kat Leyh, Sam Logan, Mike Maihack, Phil McAndrew, Rosemary Mosco, Shan Murphy, Maki Naro, Ryan North, Sarah Winifred Searle, Ben Sears, Jason Viola, EK Weaver, Alison Wilgus, David Willis, Tory Woollcott, Sophie Yanow, and the terminally-named Jim Zub¹. The list is being added to, and we’ll let you know of who else we notice from time to time.

And you’ll probably find more people you like by checking out the publishers who’ll be on hand, including Cloudscape Comics, Creators For Creators², :01 Books, Iron Circus Comics, Koyama Press, The Nib, Oni Press, Retrofit Comics, and Shortbox³. As we get word of what creators will be with publishers, we’ll let you know.

As a reminder, TCAF will take place Saturday & Sunday, 11 & 12 May, from 9:00am (Saturday)/10:00am (Sunday) until 5:00pm, at the Toronto Reference Library, 789 Yonge Street. Attendance is free to all events, but some Junji Ito events will require tickets (details TBA).

Spam of the day:

12,000 “Perfect” Shed Plans only for you

While I do have a moustache that, all modesty aside, is pretty impressive, I am neither Ron Swanson nor Nick Offerman. I have no use for your shed plans.

_______________
¹ Rumo[u]rs that Chip Zdarsky will sneak into TCAF to do violence upon Mr Zub so that he may be the last-named comics artist are unconfirmed at press time.

² Not really a publisher, but they’ll be there and that’s cool.

³ Ditto.

This weekend is the Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo, one of the increasingly-common, increasingly well-attended, increasingly relevant, free (or near-free) comics shows that goes by Expo or Festival. MICE, as always, will be held on the campus of Lesley University in Cambridge, MA, at University Hall, adjacent to the Porter Square T stop.

Don’t worry if you’ve never heard of Lesley; Cambridge is across the river from Boston, and as we all know, Boston isn’t a big college town.

MICE has done a nice job of attracting webcomickers and webcomicker-alikes, and this weekend you’ll be able to meet the likes of Vera Brosgol, Tillie Walden, Tony Cliff and Rosemary Mosco (all of whom are Special Guests and will be in the main atrium).

In the exhibit hall, you’ll find Abby Howard (H94), Alex Graudins (H88), Nate Powell (E128), Jean Wei (A42), John Green (E115), Blue Delliquanti (H95), Jon Chad (D09), Josh Neufeld (D19), KC Green (D16), Christine Larsen (B86), Wendy Xu (A57), Dan Nott (B65), Zack Giallongo (E117), , Dirk Tiede (E122), Eric Colossal (E139), and Anne and Jerzy Drozd (E118).

A few clarifications: Ben Hatke was scheduled to appear, but had to cancel; George O’Connor will be at table H102, not George O’Connor; Nicholas Offerman will be at table D20, not Nicholas Offerman; the Center For Cartoon Studies will be at table E137; Matt Lubchansky will be repping The Nib at table H89; and it is entirely possible that Lucy Bellwood will be lured away from table E116 by boats. Shelli Paroline would be a notable local absence, except for the part where she’s the co-director of the show, and thus has no time to promote herself; if you see her at rest for ten seconds, be sure to thank her.

By the way, tables starting with an A are in the atrium, B tables are in the Bechdel Room, D tables in the Doucet Hall, and H tables in the Hernandez Room, all on the upper floor. The lower level is where you’ll find the E tables in the Eisner Level, as well as the Cartoonarium (where artists will be doing demos all weekend). Panels are upstairs in the amphitheater, workshops downstairs in the Eliot and Lesley Rooms, with the schedule here.

MICE show hours are a nicely humane 10:00am to 6:00pm tomorrow, 20 October, and 11:00am to 5:00pm Sunday, 21 October. MICE is free and open to the public.

Spam of the day:

Find Love With a Beautiful Russian Woman

And yet, you advertise yourself as Ukraine Dating Agency, not recognizing that Ukrainians and Russians are not the same. Curious.

Before we get to said bullshit, how about a little positivity? VanCAF (one of the standoout *CAF free comics festivals that has come about in the mode of TCAF¹) is this weekend, and every expectation is that the show made great by (founding showrunner) Shannon Campbell and (incoming showrunner) Andrea Demonakos will continue its trajectory of awesomeness.

Webcomickers expected in Vancouver’s Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre include Abby Howard, Alina Pete, Becky Dreistadt & Frank Gibson, Blue Delliquanti, Ed Brisson, Evan Dahm, Angela Melick, Jakface, Jeph Jacques, Kathleen Jacques (no relation), Katie Shanahan, Kean Soo, Kel McDonald, Kelly Tindall, Kory Bing, Lucy Bellwood (adventure cartoonist!), Sam Logan, Sarah Becan, Der-Shing Helmer, Steve LeCouilliard, Tony Cliff, and Tyson Hesse, along with featured guests C Spike Trotman, Chip Zdarsky, and Faith Erin Hicks.

On to crappier things.

• Apparently, about seven days ago, Tapas (formerly Taptastic, the wecomic-hosting solution) changed its terms and services. The first person I saw that actually looked at the new T&S is webcomics superfan Michael Kinyon, who noted that there’s now a Right of First Refusal clause. This could be very, very bad or potentially not that bad.

  As the aforementioned and omnipresent Spike notes, First Refusal means you have to tell Taptastic/Tapas if you want to do anything with the stuff you host with them, and they have the first crack at making you an offer. She lays out a scenario where you could be prevented from doing stuff with your stuff, potentially forever.

  But, and this is why lawyers exist, the terminology doesn’t say that Tapa* has an absolute lock on future deals, just that you have to negotiate with them for at least 30 days. If you can’t come to an agreement “in good faith” in that time, they missed their chance.

  Of course, what constitutes “good faith”, or what constitutes you wanting to (quoting now) sell, license, exercise or otherwise dispose of, indirectly or directly, any rights or any interest in any content posted on the Platform is subject to all kinds of interpretation because (to my eye, at least) the clause is super-broad.

  But I am not a lawyer, so let’s hear from one, subject to the mandatory disclaimer:

  FYI, I do this type of legal work. Happy to give some general advice (none of you are my clients, & retain & consult a lawyer …

  me or s/o else, before relying on this (I’d do some actual research before giving official advice :), but here’s my “from top of head” take:

  Akiva Cohen’s read is that it’s really broad, but that right of first negotiation does not constitute an ongoing right to make counteroffers forever, and that the chief cost to you is time. He also notes a lack of specificity as to when you have to provide notice, and this next bit is pretty brilliant:

  Here’s where you get the benefit of someone thinking like a lawyer ;): The clause puts no parameters on WHEN you can give notice

  So, theoretically, you could provide notice, the day you sign up with them, that you “desire to sell, license, etc.” ALL content you have or

  will place on their platform, and offer them a 30 day period to negotiate for any rights to that.

  Result: either they give you a good enough offer before you post comic number 31 (if you’re a daily) that you want to take it, or

  their right of first refusal has been satisfied and you are free, 2 months, 1 year, or 5 years later, to take the work to market w/o …

  providing them any further notice or exclusive negotiating period

  Questions? Cohen put his email in the thread for anybody that wants to have a more detailed discussion, but remember — he is not your lawyer until you have a formal agreement for him to represent you. Which, he says, he’s willing to do at a preferred rate on on behalf of groups. Read the whole thing.

  My take: it’s not terrible, but I hate, hate, hate it when companies changes their T&S and force you to agree or discontinue use — if you don’t agree to Tapa*’s new rules, you have to delete your account (they don’t give a timeframe for acceptance), which definitely puts them in a position of imposing on their users. Also, Tapa* is clearly not taking the Katie Lane² approach of trying to find a mutually-beneficial solution for all, they’re trying to maximize their potential payouts in the quickest, least-defined way possible³.

  This all leads back to a few rules we would all be well served to remember:

  • If a service is helpful and free, you are being monetized somehow.
  • Nobody will care about your ability to make a living from your work as much as you.
  • Read the damn contract and then have a lawyer read it; unless an actual lawyer with experience in contracts has told you on multiple occasions that you’re good at contracts and unlikely to get screwed acting on your own, you are not good at contracts and are likely to get screwed by acting on your own.

  Tattoo ’em on the insides of your eyelids.

• It gets worse, if you can believe it. Word broke yesterday that a webcomic had been hacked and deleted for the purposes of attacking the creator, for whom it was a main source of income. The creator, Sophie Labelle, was subject to coordinated harassment, threats, and doxing in the lead up, for the crime of being trans and making a comic that dealt with trans and non-binary issues. The website of Assigned Male [no link, about to explain] is presently down, which is actually an improvement as it was previously spewing Nazi imagery.

  Way to prove your innate superiority, Nazis, you’ve completely won me over with your impeccable logic and moral argument! Engaging in your righteous and in no way assholic behavior on International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia was surely an unfortunate coincidence! Oh, and since there are such things as Tumblr and print copies, you didn’t actually manage to go back in time and erase Labelle or Assigned Male from ever existing. Way to accomplish nothing, you ineffectual, fragile, yet curiously convinced of your own genetic destiny dipshits!

  In fact, given that a lot of people hadn’t heard of Assigned Male before yesterday, I’m going to call this a pretty good example of the Streisand Effect. Patreon doesn’t show timelines of support (at least, not to random nosy-pants like me), but I’m willing to bet that you’ve driven the count of Labelle’s supporters up and raised her profile. People that didn’t have an opinion on trans issues have decided where they stand, and they’ve decided against hate.

  Assuming that anybody reading this page falls into that category⁴, do me a personal favor and take a peek at her work, maybe toss a few bucks to her Paypal to help with the sudden expense of having to move on account of Nazis are sending death threats and publicizing her address.

  Not too long ago, this sort of evil was ordinary; then things started to get better, and now the evil fuckers are trying to drag us back to when they could pull this shit and not be met with condemnation for it. Don’t let them get away with it.

Spam of the day:

Consolidate Debt — Shark Tank Star’s Recommendation

Is it that one obnoxious guy that thought he could be Prime Minister of Canada on the basis of he’s rich? I wouldn’t take advice from that guy if I was on fire and he was suggesting a dip in the pool.

_______________
¹ Indeed, it’s now produced in partnership with TCAF.

² Light-ning LAW-yer!

³ To be fair, they can’t renegotiate with all their users individually. They could, however, set a date for the new T&S to take effect, and offer tools to migrate content away from their platform for any users that don’t want to accept the new T&S. Even my credit card companies — as rapacious and evil an industry as exists with respect to one-sided contracts — gives me 30 days to accept new contract terms or to close an account.

⁴ And on the off chance that you don’t — that you think that what happened to Labelle was fine, or all in good fun, or what your deity of choice requires — kindly do me favor and fuck off. You’re not welcome in my house. The rest of you can come over and hang out.

The mail has been good to me lately — it’s brought me long-awaited, very hefty, very handsome hardcovers of two of my favorite webcomics. I get to enjoy ’em, and that means you get to enjoy ’em, too.

• Okay, it was actually last week, but Los Angeles resident Dave Kellett’s Drive is one of the very best sci-fi stories you’re ever gonna read, and hundreds of pages in he’s still setting up the pieces for his story’s conflict. I’ve spoken of Drive plenty here, so I’ll just mention that what we get in the first volume is roughly the first act of a story (from here to here, interrupted from time to time by things like childbirth and movie production) that will run for years yet, plus a series of his guest-contributed Tales From The Drive shorts.

  But what a book! The slipcover pulls back to reveal a design that carries the logo of the story’s imperial family, and the endpapers present an in-continuity map chock full o’ context (not to mention references to key story points¹ as almost afterthoughts, there’s so many of them). The guest stories are by (respectively) Dylan Meconis, Christopher Hastings & Anthony Clark, Ryan North & Tony Cliff, Zach Weinersmith, and Evan Dahm.² They are (respectively) uplifting hilarious, hilarious, hilarious and melancholy/insightful.

  In the interests of full disclosure, the book features a blurb on the back cover by a hack webcomics pseudojournalist, who is also mentioned on the thanks page. Apparently the many questions I have pestered him with over the past six or seven years have been more than simple fanboying and convinced LArDK that I would be a good alpha reader for the book³, and he sent me a copy several weeks in advance of the Kickstarter fulfillment. This means that I have a second copy of Drive: Act One, which fact will be relevant a bit further down the page.

• Today’s mail brought the similarly long-awaited and just as impressive first print collection of Abby Howard’s The Last Halloween. The story, which I’ve loved from the beginning, reads even better on the page; the original strips are more than can fit on one page, and Howard has cleverly designed her book to make reveals even better. The best example is this strip, which features one of her best gags; in the book the setup ends at the bottom of a right-hand page and final punchline panel is at the top of the following left-hand page, hiding the payoff and increasing its effectiveness.

  To give you an idea how hefty the book is, that gag with Ringley and his dad is the 39th strip in the archives, but the punchline doesn’t appear until page 144; this translates into more than 400 pages of story, with dozens of extras, sketches, and bonus material at the back. If you missed backing the Kickstarter, look for copies in Howard’s TopatoCo store (NB: Said store is currently undergoing a redesign and may be sporadically available for the next few hours as I write this We’re good!) once backer fulfillment is done.

• Back to Drive for a moment; I’d also expect to see the book added to LArDK’s Drive Store shortly, but what if you don’t want to wait? And haven’t I got a spare copy hanging around? Why yes, yes I do. So I’m gonna give that mutha away. Email me at gary who has an account at the name of this here website, which is a dot-com by 30 April, with the subject line GIMME BOOK.

  I’ll draw one at random and send it your way (but if you live overseas and it’s gonna cost me like thirty bucks, I’ll ask you chip in on shipping), then you will read it and become as addicted as I am. Oh, and I should mention that the book has one minor print error (two pages stuck together, leading to a very minor tear on separation) which may reduce your reading enjoyment by as much as 0.00378%; if this disturbs you, then don’t try to win a free book. Good luck, and get to emailing.

Spam of the day:

3 Secrets The Mattress Store Don’t Want Out

Mattress store mattresses are made from orphans? That’s one, what are the other two?

_________________
¹ Here I’m referring to the disclaimer on the map about the Captain’s Dictate (which was revealed in the strip relatively recently, well after the events in this book). For that matter, there’s back matter including a timeline that likewise features a major spoiler in the form a critical character’s name that was revealed less than a year ago.

So, uh, maybe don’t read the timeline until you’ve binged through the archive?

² Dahm’s story being the absolute best 12 page single story I read in 2016, bee-tee-dubs.

³ Probably because my obsessive tendencies meant I asked him years ago if he realized in two strips that ran five years apart that he’d referred to the same character as “Stephen” and “Steven”. Pedantry! It can be used for good!

Los Angeles resident Dave Kellett put up the Kickstarter for the Drive chapter one collection around midnight Easterly Time, and as of this writing (call it a bit less than fifteen hours in), he’s above US$24K of the US$35K goal. Looking good on the stretch goals (which I’m told will include the Tales of the Drive anthology stories, from the likes of Dylan Meconis, Ryan North & Tony Cliff, Zach Weinersmith, Christopher Hastings & Anthony Clark, and Evan Dahm), looking like I have to clear space on my shelves, etc. Two things I wanted to talk about beyond the fact this is a cool Kickstarter.

• No, three. Three things. Because first, I note that three people have taken advantage of the top reward tier (US$500), which includes the complete eight book Sheldon library, various Drive tchotchkes, and one of the few pages of original art Drive art (the strip has been produced digitally since very nearly the start). It’s a bargain, and quite frankly underprices the Drive art.
• Second, I want to note that LArDK pulled a sneaky launch on the campaign, as there are two reward tiers that he apparently tipped off his Patreon supporters to yesterday, as they were only good on that day. Basically, they got a shot to grab the US$65 tier for US$50 or the $US90 tier for US$75, and a total of 240 people did. Now consider the momentum you get from letting your most ardent fans — the ones giving you money every month — an early shot at a bargain for one day only.

  The FOMO is strong, the campaign goes widely public more than halfway to goal (as of right now, there are 362 backers, meaning two thirds of the backers are from the early access period), and you get to screw with my formulas for predicting final tally all at the same time. Curse you, Los Angeles resident Dave Kellett! But seriously — this was a masterful stroke of leveraging an existing support base.

• Third, everybody that actually knows how to run a good Kickstarter (i.e.: not anybody that spams you promising a successful campaign for a usurious service fee) will tell you that a good, to-the-point video is a key part of the campaign. Of course, LArDK has provided one (it’s hilarious, and at 82 seconds in length, gets the point across efficiently), but that’s a given. And it’s super unfair.

  Not everybody trying to Kickstart their thing made a feature film (and a fine looking one at that) and has experienced Hollywood types (director/cinematographer, film editor) at their beck and call. Everybody else that ever makes a Kickstarter video from today forward has to up their game because LArDK just went and blew the curve for you. Email your complaints to screw.you@losangelesresidentdavekellet.com.

Spam of the day:

The DRIVE Kickstarter is finally here! YOU GUYS I’M VERY EXCITED THIS IS VERY EXCITING http://http://DriveKickstarter.com

We get it, Los Angeles resident Dave Kellett, you’re excited about your book.

This day in Great Outdoor Fight history: No strip; I believe that Sound And Motion is getting up from his Downward Dog or some such.

It’s nearly the weekend and by way of advance notice, the next couple of weeks look to be a little weird. My teaching schedule next week will be to accommodate students who are variously located in Holland, India, and Australia. The week after that is jury duty (one day or one trial; really hoping for the former). Starting the week after that will be a fairly lengthy period of travel. Apologies in advance for any interruptions.

• However, the day I anticipate sitting around in a room waiting to find out if I’m part of a jury, I intend to catch up on some reading. Stacked up and waiting to be read: no fewer than four review copies from the good folks at :01 Books (by Ben Hatke, Tony Cliff, Faith Erin Hicks, and James Kochalka¹). I’ve also got a PDF of the second part of Sophie Goldstein’s House of Women (the first part of which garnered a 2013 Ignatz), which Ms Goldstein was kind enough to send along. Everybody else in the jury room can stare glumly into their phones, I’ma get my comics on.
• I’ve expressed this before, but I really need to learn to draw one of these days. And, were I not on jury duty, I just might spend that week in San Francisco² seeing as how the Cartoon Art Museum is kicking off their latest education program on Thursday, 3 March, at 7:00pm. To be more specific, Mark Badger will be running a class on drawing, in conjunction with CAM, each Thursday night in March.

  Mark Badger’s Just Draw is for older teens, adults, runs two hours per session, held at the temporary educational space in the Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center at 275 Fifth Street. It’ll cover everything from four-page minis to the four hundred page magnum opus, with a veteran cartoonist/teacher (thirty years and fifteen years, respectively) for the low, low price of US$200 (US$175 for CAM members), with enrollment available here.

• Now that the thirteen part travel halfway round the world and get married epic is done at Johnny Wander, Ananth Hirsh and Yuko Ota are getting ready to drop their next project on us, and it looks like a doozy. It’s tempting to think of them as one Voltron-like single entity, but they are actually separate people! And sometimes they work on their own projects! And starting Tuesday, the latest of these will begin serialization. Let’s let Hirsh tell us all about it:
  

  Beginning next week we’ll be running the first chapter of IS THIS WHAT YOU WANTED, a comic I’ve been collaborating on with Tessa Stone and Sarah Stone! I’ve worked with Tess previously on BUZZ!, a graphic novel about full-contact spelling bees (available through Oni Press). Tessa currently does Not Drunk Enough, and Sarah Stone has worked on a huge range of projects, including Transformers: Windblade!

  We’ll be running the first chapter on Johnny Wander, at which point the comic will migrate to its own website. The first four pages will run on Tuesday, and then we’ll post a comic per update like normal.

  One chapter to get us hooked, eh? I’m onto you, Hirsh, and if your previous collab with Tessa Stone wasn’t so good, I’d be getting the hell out of here before you got your greedy hooks in me. But BUZZ! was good — very, very good — and so I’m willingly coming back to you. I trust you’ll make it worth my while.

• And, from Fleen Senior French Correspondent Pierre Lebeaupin:
  

  Sorry, it turns out my reference for [the end of Notes on paper](http://fleen.com/archives/2016/02/17/happy-returns-of-the-day/) was outdated, as more recently Boulet indicated that « [Volume 9 was a “pentimento” after I planned to stop after volume 8](http://www.bouletcorp.com/#answer54) » and that he even had extra pages that would end up in a volume 10, where we are today. It is probably best to consider each volume of Notes as being potentially the last, while leaving open the possibility of future volumes, much like these singers who always claim this is their last tour but can’t seem to actually bring themselves to stop.

  Duly noted; on the plus side, we’re gonna get several hundred pages of Boulet, so that’s all right. Have a good weekend, everybody.

Spam of the day:

Keep your bait possibilities different by pking a couple dozen leeches just in case.

Gotta say, leeches are a welcome respite from the slutty moms in my area that want to have sex with me. Pretty sure that combination of words has never been uttered in any context throughout human history.

_______________
¹ Which is in all likelihood the greatest book in history.

² Okay, not really — if I don’t get picked for trial, I have to head to Dallas for work later that week.

Continuing from yesterday, The AV Club has more comics that they want you to know about, this time of graphic novels, one-shots, and archive-style reprints.

Webcomics types recognized include Lucy Knisley (for Displacement), EK Weaver (for the omnibus edition of The Less Than Epic Adventures of TJ and Amal, published by Spike’s Iron Circus Comics), Ron Wimberly (for Lighten Up, originally published at The Nib and reprinted in Eat More Comics), the various contributors to The Nib (for Eat More Comics, which some would consider redundant with the last item, but Wimberly’s piece was good enough to be called out on its own), Noelle Stevenson (for — do we really need to remind you? — Nimona), and Kate Beaton (for Step Aside, Pops).

That’s more than a quarter of this list of 25, which combined with yesterday’s haul comes to just about 30% of the 50 comics recognized. Well done, all ’round.

• And while we’re running down lists of immensely skilled creators, Los Angeles resident Dave Kellett has released a new list of contributors to his Tales of the Drive shared-universe series. If I recall correctly, we knew that Zach Weinersmith was going to be doing a story, and that Ryan North would be writing one.

  Not sure if we knew that North’s artist would be Tony Cliff, and it’s definitely news that Karl Kerschl (ooh!), Jeph Jacques (I hope it’s about AI rights), Lar deSouza (due can draw anything), Meredith Gran (is there a Brooklyn in the Second Spanish Empire?), and Evan Dahm (dude can draw non-humans better’n anybody) will be contributing. I figure that’s enough to cover then next couple of years and make one hell of a print collection.

• News of all the announced contributors to the revived MST3K has set my head a-spinning. I wouldn’t call myself a hardcore MiSTie, but I love this tendency we seem to have these days where enormously creative people in one field seem to gravitate towards enormously creative people in other fields, like a post-millenial version of the Algonquin Round Table, with less emphasis on the literary and possibly even more drinking.

  Just look at the list! Pendleton Ward! Rebecca and Steven Sugar! Adam frickin’ Savage! I saw on another list that Paul and Storm would be part of the project, and of course we’ve got Felicia Day and Patton Oswalt — the cross-pollination of pure imagination is going to be a wonder to behold. It’s something we spoken about here in the past, where a creator need not be just one kind of creator for their entire career, and I think it means we’re in for a golden age of guerrilla entertainment.

No good spam today. Maybe Monday.