Daisy Owl, friend to moustachery everywhere.

• Okay, this sucks: Kean Soo‘s most famous work, the award-winning Jellaby, is losing half its presence in print. For reasons beyond our Earth Logic, Disney-Hyperion are yanking Jellaby volume 1 from print:
  

  It was, I presume, a financial decision on the part of my publisher, Disney-Hyperion, even though the book has been a modest success by comic standards (more than 18,000 copies sold over the span of 21 months), and had been slowly picking up readers as time went on. Having Jellaby off the shelves does create an unfortunate situation, however — the second book, Jellaby: Monster in the City, is the conclusion of the story that runs through both books, and by removing the availability of the first book, Monster in the City is in danger of leading a shortened life as well, being a now- incomplete second half to a two-part story.

  Now, I’m no publishing mogul, but it seems to me that if you have something that sells, then making more means you can sell more. So yeah, terrific logic there, Disney-Hyperion. Heckuva job. Bottom line, if you want a copy of this utterly charming book, better grab it now. Those of you that plan on having children some day, get a copy or two now and lay them down like fine wine for your progeny to enjoy in the future.

• How about some good news that relates to our Northerly Friends? The Toronto Comics Art Festival has had a reputation for being one of the best shows on the circuit, and 2010 marks the move from biannual to annual occurrences. Furthermore, the exhibitors list has been released, with the guests forming a veritable who’s who of our chosen artform. In addition to Mr Soo, in no particular order, you got yer Spike, yer Doc Hastings, yer John Campbell, and yer KC Green.

  Want more? You also have Graham Annable, Kate Beaton, Box Brown, Danielle Corsetto, Joey Comeau & Emily Horne, Becky Dreistadt & Frank Gibson, Rene Engström, Meredith Gran, Chris Hallbeck, Andrew Hussie, Jeph Jacques, Lucy Knisley, Sam Logan, Davids Malki ! and Maguire, Dylan Meconis, Hurricane Erika, The Toronto Man-Mountain, Yuko Ota & Ananth Panagariya, Dave Roman & Raina Telgemeier, Jon Rosenberg, Jeff Rowland & the TopatoCo crüe, Rich Stevens, and Jim Zubkavich, plus about a million others that I’ve no doubt missed on the list.

  Whew. My travel plans for the spring aren’t entirely set yet (there’s this pretty awesome out-of-state post-wedding party-up later in May), but I hope to attend TCAF if only to say howdy to all the incredible talent that will be attending. But whether I make it there or not, if you’re not doing anything much, much cooler on May 8th & 9th, the Toronto Reference Library will be the place to be.

SPX is coming up in a few days and dammit I won’t be there because virtually every cool creator is going to be. You should check out all of the webcomicky people, which list includes — but probably not exhaustively so — the following creators (big breath now): Aaron, Ami, Box, Bree, Bryan, Carla, Carol, Chris, Danielle, Dave, David, Dern, Emily, Erika, James, Jeph, Jess, Joey, John, John, John, Jon, Julia, Kate, Marion, Mer, Raina, Rich, Sara, Spike, Sam, and Scott. Whew!

For added fun, Box Brown has a list of must-buy books, and The X-Man will be wandering the floor on Saturday.

• Know who won’t be at SPX (besides me?) Liz Cusack Greenfield. ‘s been a while since Ms Liz stepped away from webcomics, but that doesn’t mean she’s given up drawing. Behold: magazine spot illos, which I’ll take because I love her stuff so much. Should she ever decide to return to the reprobate-filled world of [web]comics, I’ll be waiting with bells on. On what? I hear you cry. None of your damn business.
• Finally, thanks to Webcomics-dot-com for reminding me: 24 Hour Comic Day is coming up! From the aforementioned w-d-c, thoughts by Trev Wood as to why 24HCD is something you should be in on; read it, accept the wisdome, then stock up on the No-Doz and Jolt cola, sharpen up your Sharpies, and get crackin’ oh my sleep-deprived droogs.

Walking with Heidi MacDonald towards the end of MoCCA ’09, she asked me about the takeaway for the event. What one thing summed it up, more than anything else? That was a tough one — there wasn’t a standout book that dominated the show, or an event, and there was (it’s fair to say) a measurable amount of disorganization on Saturday that threw off the cadences of the show for the day. And there’s your theme for the show — determination.

Despite the lack of some very capable people who left the MoCCA board back in October, the Museum was determined to put on the show. Despite organizational problems that prevented the show from opening for its first hour on Saturday, the attendees stayed in line (around the corner and down the block), determined to enter. Despite that late opening making a jumble of the programming schedule, the audiences determined the new times and packed the rooms. Despite the dead air circulation and lack of A/C, all concerned were determined to have a good time.

Lots of exhibitors spoke to me about selling out or nearly so, and if there was a lot of expressed nostalgia for the recent TCAF show, nobody I spoke to was hating on the show — at least, not after getting some air outside. As somebody lucky enough to be a booth sherpa during setup on Saturday morning, the dead first hour gave me an opportunity to connect with creators I’d met previously but didn’t know very well, and to have the time to enjoy it without blocking fans from seeing them. I got to compare notes with MacDonald, Rick Marshall, and Johanna Draper Carlson. I got the lowdown on the previous night’s Drink & Draw Like a Lady and the inside scoop on the dudes who tried to crash the party. Not a perfect show, but a mess o’ fun nevertheless.

Oh, and by means of skillful reportage, I can now let Fleen readers know exclusively that a significant creator has plans to create a new model of webcomicking that will change everything from this point forward — money will be made, competitors will be crushed, and life as we know it will never be the same. I know! Shocking!

Webcomics types in attendance and/or showing included (in no particular order) Bernie Hou, Magnolia Porter (who was slumming with an incognito Kris Straub), Rosemary Mosco (who was not showing, but always a pleasure to talk science with her), Hope Larson (who has excellent new hair and plans for more DDLL in the future), Frank Gibson & Beck Dreistadt (all the way from New Zealand!), Cat Garza (who has found that his recent student advisee at CCS has him thinking about new approaches to comics), Cameron Stewart (who made what’s maybe the single greatest contribution to the Beards & Moustaches theme sketchbook), Darren J Gedron (who waxes ‘stache with the best of them), Ami B & Bree Rubin (who are clever, young, talented, and just starting the show circuit), Spike (whose books are very heavy by the case), John Keogh, and Ian Jones-Quartey (whose unfinished opus, RPG World, got its return pushed back by a year when I enquired when it would finish).

Over on Webcomics Island, one would find Andy Bell, Jon Rosenberg (whose first major-publisher book is hitting the pre-release circuit … we’ll be having a giveaway soon), Sam Brown, Steven Cloud, Rich Stevens, Meredith Gran, Ryan North (whose new book we may see by end of the year), David Malki !, Chris Hastings (whose new book we may see by San Diego), Jeph Jacques (whose first book is still missing a few strips, as the original high-res files have gone missing), Randall Munroe (who for the first time found his table space slightly blocked by another creator instead of being the blocker, and whose update today should provoke groans and beatings), Kate Beaton (who is totally awesome in person and whose crowd was going elbow-to-elbow with Munroe’s), Dave Roman (who wonders if there will ever be another general-interest kids magazine on the newstand racks), Raina Telgemeier, Dylan Meconis (who looks sharper in a suit than I ever will), Kean Soo (who, sadly, I spaced on coming to the show, and didn’t bring my copy of Jellaby 2 for sketchin’ & signin’).

Other things to note:

• Scott Campbell‘s Double Fine Action Comics volume 1 is a trip and a half; he’s thinking about doing a children’s book with images from the recent HOME SLICE gallery show, with little lift-up doors to reveal everything in the homes. Also, once he gets a definite story idea, an Igloo Head & Tree Head book!
• Box Brown‘s girlfriend Sarah (and inspiration for “Ellen”) has totally got the patient cartoonist spouse/partner thing down; she was a delight to meet, and it’s obvious why Brown finds her such an inspiring muse. Brown also had one of the cooler table items at the show, an eight-page newsprint comics section, filled with strips (daily and Sunday) for the proposed Bellen! syndicated strip, which didn’t end up happening. Similarly, the Transmission X collective found that a simple postcard with their names and comic titles wasn’t working, but a full-color newsprint broadsheet with full strip samples of each of their work is a terrific attention-getter.
• Dylan Meconis’s Bite Me! might be my favorite purchase of the show. Ask me in a week when I’ve had a chance to read everything, but any book that provides a “Revolution Starter Kit” in the form of a drawing of Marie Antoinette’s head (Tab A) and a guillotine (Slot B), with instructions to insert A into B? Genius. Possible competitors: And Don’t Forget The Droids and Only What You Take With You, sequels to last year’s Harvest Is When I Need You The Most — whimsical takes on the minutae of the Star Wars universe. How does one apologize to Lord Vader? What does it mean to “bulls-eye womp rats”? How can a whiny farm-boy upset the economy of moisture farming, and what happens if you do kiss a Wookie?
• But then, Frank & Becky’s Tiny Kitten Teeth book (and portfolio of Becky’s paintings) looked better than any printed material has a right to, and was more adorable (in an acid-flashback whirlwind kind of way) than human eyes can tolerate. Catch them on their tour of the US, culminating in San Diego next month.
• Drink & Draw attracted 70 – 75 ladies, much fun was had, and the dudes trying to sneak in from the unrelated speed-dating event elsewhere in the bar were dealt with summarily. Organizer Hope Larson definitely will repeat the event next year (hopefully with sponsors), and wants to expand to at least a West Coast iteration for those that couldn’t make it to New York. Asked about the possibility of running DDLL prior to SPX, Stumptown, APE, TCAF, and other indy-friendly shows, only the amount of difficulty in arranging things long-distance seemed to deter her. Give it a year or two, there’ll be these things popping up all over.
• I totally forgot that I met you, and I’m sorry. Also, I spelled your name wrong. I suck, but I promise to make it up with some pictures tomorrow, and with book reviews in the coming days.

Things can happen very quickly on The Twitters:

Outcome: Awesome. Todays strip, borne of desperation, made me giggle like a little kid. Well done.

• Speaking of Twitters, John Campbell has turned his new account into a forum for serialized insanity; it’s like reading a non-drawn version of his comic. And with Josh Fruhlinger‘s new Twitter account, it’s Aldomania every day!
• Friend of webcomickry Rick I Hate That Stupid Movie And It’s Not Even Out Yet Marshall has managed to get his semiregular MTV Splash Page feature on comics that should be movies over to the web side o’ things — Dr McNinja‘s a good start, but I really want to see his take on Templar.
• As learned from various shadowy sources, the “person” known as Eben07 may or may not exist, and may or may not be responsible for a similarly-named webcomic. Nevertheless, Eben07 (the person or persons) has reached a milestone with Eben07 (the comic); the following is an excerpt from a dossier received by Fleen via methods that we are not at liberty to disclose at this time:
  

  Our comic, Eben07, will be releasing a collection of the episode Operation: For the Love of Russia on June 7th. It is a 52 page full color book with a trade-paperback style cover for $10.

  [redacted] features all the comics from Operation: For the Love of Russia (many of which were redesigned to read and feel more like a comic book page) including the guest comics from Jason Zuckerman and Stephen Lindsay and Lauren Monardo, as well as a “never to be released on the web” epilogue that divulges [redacted].

  [redacted] be selling it in person at the Sacramento Comic Convention on June 7th as special guest invites (I think we’re the only web-based comic that’s going to have a special guest table, but [redacted].

  Fleen readers are advised that the one-eyed dog barks at midnight, and that location “SCC” is go. Repeat, SCC is go.

Soooooo … we pointed out about two weeks ago that John Campbell, was preparing for his annual descent into madness, aka hourly comics. Although he’s struggling against microbial attempts to kill him, so far he prevails, and has indeed convinced others to join in his unique brand of sleepless creation. Kate Beaton has the most compact roundup of Hourly Comics Doers, and you can get in on it less than two weeks hence when Hourly Comics Day hits. Give in to the madness.

• Fresh off his 2005 talk finally getting posted to the TED video site, Scott McCloud follows up with an interview with Jesse Thorn on The Sound of Young America. I didn’t know this one was coming up, so it was just luck that I was near a radio last night and heard Jesse’s intro at the top of the show. As mentioned a few weeks back when he spoke with Chris Onstad and David Malki !, Thorn is probably the best radio interviewer in the game today, and his talk with McCloud was a terrific listen — you can check out the podcast here.

  And if that weren’t enough, the Sunday evening guy on WNYC followed up TSOYA with the weather, some teasers for the programming to come, and the revelation that he used to be the McCloud family babysitter. As I wrote to Scott last night, it’s a weird world, and he sits in the middle of it all (the world, and the weird).

• Finally, Heidi MacDonald brought us some news over the weekend — following in the footsteps of Phil & Kaja Foglio, Carla Speed McNeil, and Wendy & Richard Pini, Colleen Doran has converted her formerly-print indy comic to a webcomic. One of the things you should know about Ms Doran is that she runs a lot of links and posts at her blog on creator’s resources — agents, copyright and trademark info, things like that.

  Oh, and while I’m here, we’ll note that while she doesn’t have a table, Ms McNeil will be attending NYCC and contribute to two panels — come back later in the week, we’ll give you the details, along with all the other webcomics-relevant panels we can find.

More of the stuff that’s dropped since the various holidays wrapped up.

• Interviews! Raina Telgemeier at Newsarama, Chris Onstad (and shortly David Malki !) at The Sound of Young America (listen at your local public radio station this week, or to Onstad online now; Jesse Thorn is seriously the best interviewer alive right now).
• Speaking of Malki !, sad news at Wondermark today — The Onion is dropping the comics page from its print edition, and thus Wondermark will be losing that distribution channel (and I’ll be losing Ziggy en Español). But to make up for it, Wondermark is joining a syndication service for college/independent papers.
• Also heading to a three-days-a-week update schedule, Ugly Hill.
• John Campbell is going insane again: hourly comics!
• Webcomics Weekly returns after six or seven weeks, and apparently they had some fun at my expense.
• Finally, they basically raise money year-round, but I’m going to arbitrarily put a period on this year’s Child’s Play efforts, which to date amount to US$1.17 million. Considering they keep telling us this is one of the crappiest economies in six or seven decades, to have exceeded the goal by nearly a half a million dollars is one of those things that make you feel good inside. We’ll see if we can’t come up with something tomorrow to cure that.

I think it’s officially on the way to being a movement now: last week, R Stevens and Sam Brown held an experiment. Noting that there are no longer many shared cultural experiences in a world of thousands of channels and easily-accessed internet porn, they declared that at 8pm EDT on 23 October, everybody should listen to Michael Jackson’s Thriller all the way through.

Time for the second instance of shared culture: tomorrow night, 10pm EDT, it’s The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars by David Bowie, and you can tweet along with Sam ‘n’ Rich. Give this a few more weeks, and we’ll be talking “watching Apollo 11 land” levels of worldwide shared experience.

In other news:

• Following up on our thoughts about the blurring line between webcomics and episodic games, part two of On The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness drops today.
• Just over a year ago, Ryan Estrada and John Campbell launched the Cartoon Commune from Mexico. They’ve moved on from the country in question, but the urge to communally cartoon rises strong, and Estrada has announced Cartoon Commune 2.0 for all your quick illustration needs, with a stellar array of talents just waiting to draw for you.
• Finally, as we hurtle headlong towards the spookiest day of the year — filled with ghosts, goblins, witches, sexy soldiers, sexy devils, sexy catgirls, sexy cops, sexy Ghostbusters, sexy barristas, sexy devils, sexy pirates, and God help us, sexy Alan Greenspan — okay, maybe it’s not so spooky. Unless you’re in Detroit, where Eric Millikin, wrangler of monstrous images extraordinaire, is going to be part of a show of macabre art. The disturbing images of the damned that will haunt your dreams and waking hours until the sweet release of death fun kicks in tomorrow night, at Tangent Gallery/Hasting St. Ballroom. Head over after you finish listening to Ziggy.

I’ve been meaning to point the three of you that haven’t seen it towards this piece on making it as a writer by John Scalzi for forever now, but I kept forgetting. At least 75% of what he writes is good advice for anybody looking to make it in a creative enterprise, and a couple points are useful for everybody, period.

Okay, enough content, how’s about a FIGHT?

1. Randall Munroe hates grapefruit, which prompted a defense of citrus from RS³
2. John Campbell doesn’t buy into the technological singularity, which prompted annoyance from Dresden Codak fans (although not from Latin Heartthrob Aaron Diaz)
3. Campbell’s fellow communard Ryan Estrada, feeling left out, declared a vendetta against Eric F Myers (who is not one to let unanswered insults go by)

By this time tomorrow, the general blood feud meme will have spread to the point that no webcomicker is immune, and by the end of the week will escalate to Terror and the total destruction of Washington DC by Brad Guigar. In the end, only antipodean webcomickers will survive. Please lock your tray tables and seat backs into the full upright position, and everybody dance the apocalypso.

So I thought that yesterday’s Sheldon was just an innocent lark, a minor mindgame on the part of Arthur. Then Jon Rosenberg went and ruined it all for me with his wicked reimagining. Which leads us to today, and it seems like Dave Kellett has upped the malevolence level a little in response. Thanks a lot guys — there’s one more thing I can never enjoy again.

In altogether more wholesome news, let’s see what’s up south of the border. John Campbell writes:

hi gary!

i thought you might be interested to KNOW: hourly comic day 2008 is this friday, when a bunch of people all make a journal comic every hour and then post them on the hourly comic forum. the current year’s will go here, and you can see past years here. the page that kind of explains it is here. it is a neat way to see how different people spend their day, and it makes me feel better about spending a goddam month doing it. ALSO a couple other people have kept up with me this year, making full months of hourly comics of their own. these people include: ryan peq, max key, and joel bradbury. okay that is all!

Wait, convincing others to join him in his descent into madness? Less wholesome than I initially thought.

If you haven’t listened to the latest Webcomics Weekly podcast (number 21, yo), pay special attention to Alex Guigar (age five!) at about the 41:40 mark, where he implores his dad to engage in the age-old ritual of beating another kid’s dad with his mad comic drawing skills. Note the quiet confidence in Brad Guigar‘s voice as he assures his son of victory.

In non-ass-handing webcomics news, I’ve been emailing back and forth recently with Kate Beaton, to whom I really must apologize for not mentioning her before today. She’s been doing some kick-ass journal-style comics (did you check out her tales of returning to the family homestead for Christmas?).

Beaton’s also been doing some challenge projects; much like John Campbell‘s famed 50 questions, Beaton asked for historical topics and did comics on the first 20. Astoundingly, it turns out that Benjamin Disraeli may in fact be ripe material for the webcomics treatment.

Anyway, historical figures and events, ranging from Tesla to Emperor Norton, from Canadian Heritage Minutes (my favorite: “This nation’s name is Ka-Na-Da” with a close second to the Springhill Mine Disaster of 1958) to Good Queen Bess, with a soupçon of Pope and naked CBC personalities. Come for the history, stay for the awesome.