The webcomics blog about webcomics

A Busier Preview Night Than One Would Have Expected

And, in a way, slower that usual. The shift to much of the exclusive merchandise being available by pre-assigned lottery seemed to reduce the madness of the crowds somewhat. The other big shift of the year was the vaunted closing of the Harbor Drive, which fronts the San Diego Convention Center; it wasn’t in evidence at the times I was coming and going, however. The fact that the convention center is raised above Harbor Drive and has limited access points (one set of stairs in the middle, walking on at either end) seems to offer a limited benefit for reducing drag. Word is today that badge check will happen outside, away from the actual convention center doors, so maybe that will be an improvement.

Build out was the usual dance of frantic and calming, with admonishments over the loudspeakers this year that Exhibitors are not allowed to photograph or take video of booths before the show opens, with the crime of posting visuals of the show floor prior to opening subjecting one to possible expulsion. There’s one photo of setup, but honestly? It looks the same from year to year.

It’s in the interest of changing things up that instead of doing a large round-up post, I’ll do a brief summary, and multiple posts of interesting things interspersed. There will be one or two short bits of ephemera here, along with a preview of the day’s panels and the best cosplay photos once that gets underway.

The best ephemera was I met the editor of the new Nancy, and I told her it’s my mission to ask every cartoonist I meet if they are are, individually or jointly, Olivia Jaimes; I also asked her if she, personally, was now or every had been Olivia Jaimes. She informed me that my best guess as to Olivia Jaimes’s identity was wrong, that Jaimes is a single person and not a team, that she’s a woman, and that she’s not telling me who it is.

Fair enough, and I let her know that Nancy is now brilliant, and never more so than in those first couple weeks of Jaimes’s tenure, when the Sunday strips of her predecessor Brad Gilchrist were still running, and the contrast in style — not to mention level of funny! — was shockingly obvious. Last week, I laughed out loud at a newspaper strip for the first time in at least a decade because Olivia Jaimes is so very, very good at her job.

Also, Winter McCloud if heading to grad school, so if you were wondering if you’re getting older, the answer is yes.

Panels to watch for today include:
YA Comics FTW! with Jen Wang, Scott Westerfeld, Molly Ostertag, and Tillie Walden. Room 4 at 3:30.

Superstars In Children’s Graphic Novels with Molly Ostertag Nina Matumoto, Jarrett Krosoczka, Aron Steinke, Ian Boothby, and Jeff Smith. Room 26AB at 5:30.

Looking Like An Ostertagian Weekend From Here

Here’s the remainder of what looks interesting on the SDCC program schedule this year.

Saturday
Using Graphic Novels To Help Cope With Bullying
10:00am — 11:00am, Shiley Special Events Suite, San Diego Central Library

Educators, podcasters, and graphic novelists (Raina Telgemeier, Molly Ostertag, Christina Stewart) talk about dealing with bullying via comics.

Comic Book Law School 303: Beyond Trademarks And Copyrights
10:30am — 12:00pm, Room 11

Part three.

Comics And Geek Items For The Blind And Visually Impaired
1:00pm — 2:00pm, Room 2

Totally blind martial artist, competitive surfer, and unashamed geek Joshua Loya and actor/audio book narrator/writer Scott Brick share what options exist for nonvisual entertainment. I was hoping to see Sky McCloud (geek from birth, and blind filmmaker) on here, but I guess the organizers don’t know her.

The Comics Revolution
1:00pm — 2:00pm, Room 29AB

Mark Siegel built up :01 Books, and he’s just getting started. Come hear what he’s got to say and what he’s looking to do next.

The Adventure Zone Graphic Novel
2:00pm — 3:00pm, Room 28DE

Here there be McElroys, and Carey Pietsch who has dealt with more Tumblr shitheads than can be counted without resorting to imaginary numbers.

20 Years Of Magic: Inside Harry Potter
3:00pm — 4:00pm, Room 6DE

The artists (including Kazu Kibuishi) and editors of Harry Potter cover & interior art.

Spotlight On Scott McCloud: 25 Years Of Understanding Comics
4:00pm — 5:00pm, Room 29AB

Twenty five years. Twenty five years? Yeesh. Twenty five years.

Bubble: Monsters & Ass-Kicking With Hollywood Stars
5:00pm — 6:00pm, Neil Morgan Auditorium, San Diego Central Library

Are you listening to Bubble? It’s really funny. Featuring a third McElroy, cast members (Alison Becker, Cristela Alonzo, Eliza Skinner, Mike Mitchell), creator Jordan Morris, and America’s Radio Sweetheart, Jesse Thorn.

Studio Ghibli My Neighbor Totoro Screening
7:00pm — 9:15pm, Horton Grand Theatre

I’m guessing this is separately ticketed. If you’ve never seen Totoro on the big screen, you owe it to yourself.


Sunday

A Life’s Work: Long-Term Comic Projects
11:00am — 12:00pm, Room 25ABC

Andrew Farago from the Cartoon Art Museum talks to Lynn Johnston, Jason Lutes, Scott McCloud, and Terry Moore.

Spotlight On Tillie Walden
11:00am — 12:00pm, Room 4

Jen Wang and Tillie Walden had awesome 2017s, and they’ll talk about all of it.

1, 2, 3, . . . 20?! How To Create (And Survive) A Successful Graphic Novel Series
1:00pm — 2:00pm, Room 11

Jennifer and Matthew Holm (Babymouse series, Sunny series), Raina Telgemeier (Smile, The Babysitters Club), and Molly Ostertag (The Witch Boy). Hey, they let Molly out of the library!

Chef Duff Goldman: Culinary And Fandom
2:00pm — 3:00pm, Grand 1 & 2, Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina

I love Duff Goldman, because he loves what he loves and makes no bones about it. But I probably won’t get to see this because it’s up against the most webcomicky session of the show.

Comics Of The Internet: The Memes, The Myths, The Legends
2:00pm — 3:00pm, Room 29AB

Yep, this one. The title is a distraction, I think. Includes Matt Kolowski and Kiersten Wing from comiXology, with Hope Nicholson, Megan Kearney, Nick Franco, and David Malki ! (whose name in the program listing inexplicably omits the !).

The Keenspot Panel
4:00pm – 5:00pm, Room 7AB

I’m omitting the title, because it’s clickbaity, designed to delight some and enrage others to the disadvantage of both. You can look it up if you follow the link. But it has to do with Trump, and the fact that Keenspot has been doing comics that are OMG pro Trump but wait maybe they’re satirical but maybe they aren’t OMG.

I guess I can admire the unapologetic mercenary crassness of it all, but you know what? Screw that. There’s taking a stand, and there’s trying to ride a wave of cultural divide to the detriment of all just because you can. I’m past that shit and I hope you are, too.

(Cue annual comment from Chris Crosby about how I’m an idiot in 3 … 2 … 1 …)


Spam of the day:

Do U WANT 2 “HANG” OUT WlTH ME??

Those quotes puzzle me. Like in the newspaper strip Curtis, which is about a pre-teen black kid whose stodgy dad always complains about “rap” music — like any late-40s black guy in the world is going to be offended by rap, or pronounce it in quotes to indicate derision. It’s just … weird, man.

At Least They’re In The Dead Timeslots

Friday looks busy, looks to have multiple interesting panels at the same time, and includes a couple of things that look … yeah. We’ll talk.

Friday
The Power Of Nonfiction Graphic Novels
10:00am — 11:00am, Room 32AB

Thi Bui, Abby Howard, Alex Irvine, Clifford Johnson, and Peter Tomasi in conversation with Travis Langley.

The Black Panel
10:00am — 11:30am, Room 5AB

Okay, there’s some interesting people on this one, but I think they may need to get a bigger room because GEORGE MUTHASCRATCHIN’ CLINTON will be there. He’s gonna bring THE FUNK.

Graphic Novels: From Eisner To Explosion!
10:30am — 11:30am, Room 24ABC

And overlapping with the previous two, Scott McCloud, Jeff Smith, and Emil Ferris on the evolution of the graphic novel and what the future holds with moderator Paul Levitz. Have fun running back and forth.

Comic Book Law School 202: “Someone Just Made Me An Offer. Should I Refuse?”
10:30am — 12:00pm, Room 11

Second session, pure crack for geeky lawyers and wannalawyers.

Publishers Weekly: Crowdfunding Ethics And Evolution
11:00am — 12:00pm, Room 28DE

I don’t believe I’ve seen a discussion of crowdfunding ethics before. This could be interesting. Calvin Reid, Kel McDonald, Josh O’Neil, and attorney Jeff Trexler, with Camilla Zhang from Kickstarter.

Girl Power Comics: Middle-Grade Fiction For Girls (And Boys)
12:00pm — 1:00pm, Shiley Special Events Suite, San Diego Central Library

Or I could just stay at the library all day. Gigi DG, Molly Knox Ostertag, Yehudi Mercado, and Jennifer and Matt Holm.

Autobiography In Graphic Novels
3:00pm — 4:00pm, Shiley Special Events Suite, San Diego Central Library

Still at the library: Raina Telgemeier, Jarrett J Krosoczka, and Tillie Walden.

Spotlight On Jen Wang
3:00pm — 4:00pm, Room 9

While I’m on record that there were issues with The Prince And The Dressmaker, Jen Wang remains one of the best graphic novelists out there. Ask me how much I love Koko Be Good; go ahead, ask me! In discussion with Cecil Castellucci.

LGBTQ Graphic Novels
4:00pm — 5:00pm, Shiley Special Events Suite, San Diego Central Library

Library again, with Aminder Dhaliwal, Molly Knox Ostertag, and Ivy Noelle Weir.

Handling Challenges: Bans And Challenges To Comics
5:00pm — 6:00pm, Shiley Special Events Suite, San Diego Central Library

Library again, and maybe your only chance to hear from Gina Gagliano before she remakes the industry. Also featuring Judd Winick, Charles Kochman (editorial director, Abrams ComicArts), Candice Mack (teen services manager, Los Angeles Public Library), and David Saylor (VP/creative director/trade publishing/editorial director, Graphix).

The State Of The Industry: Animation Superstars
5:00pm — 6:00pm, Room 28DE

With all the shakeups going on in animation right now, particularly with all the women stating that they’ve had it with the shit they’ve put up with for too godsdamned long, I half expect to see a mob forming after this panel, demanding the industry do better. ‘Bout time, too. Includes Brooke Keesling (animation talent recruiter; director of communications and culture at The Animation Guild), Dave Thomas (not the Wendy’s guy, he’s dead), Katie Rice (John K nemesis, and good on her), Jorge Gutiérrez, and Ashley Long.

Best And Worst Manga Of 2018
6:00pm — 7:00pm, Room 4

A couple of my favorite people are on this one: Brigid Alverson and Christopher Butcher, along with Zac Bertschy and Deb Aoki.

Creator Origins: A Candid Conversation On How It All Began
6:00pm — 7:00pm, Room 9

C Spike Trotman sighting #3, along with Matt Kolowski and Kiersten Wing (from comiXology), Tim Seeley, Mike Norton, Sam Humphries, Alti Firmansyah, Magdalene Visaggio, Mark Sable, and Kristian Donaldson.

The Passage
6:00pm — 7:00pm, Room 6A

I have no idea what this about, but it says Mark-Paul Gosselaar will be there, and I’ll pay you a dollar if you ask him what he thinks of Zach Morris Is Trash.

#METOO To #TIMESUP: An Action Summit For Comics
6:30pm — 7:30pm, Room 8

Amy Chu, Sarah Gaydos, Taneka Stotts, Lilah Sturges, Aminder Dhaliwal, Pia Guerra, and Joan Hilty are, I suspect, going to give zero fucks and plenty of damns. Those wanting comics to revert to being by, about, and for straight white dudes approach at your own risk.

Breaking In And Monetizing Your Comics With Webtoon
7:00pm — 8:00pm, Room 4

I am deeply conflicted about Webtoon. I’m not sure I can articulate why. The fact that they promote a creators contest (never a good sign) in the description for this session is one reason. The focus on monetization from the beginning, instead of building good work, is another. Your mileage may vary.

Web Comics: The Four Panel Frontier
8:00pm — 9:00pm, Room 29AB

Searching for Alan Truong produces many results for a lawyer in British Columbia, an internist in New York, a choreographer, about ten or twelve other unrelated people, and eventually a guy who hired a PR firm to announce he’d been doing a twice-weekly strip for five years, and referred to himself unironically as Creator and Chief Officer. JR Gervais shows up as a client of A fully licensed management and PR company and with a single issue credit at Comic Vine and another single issue at comiXology. I can’t find evidence of either of them exhibiting at the show either. So maybe take their advice with a grain of salt as they (quoting here) take you through their 20-year overnight success and offer their insight into the limitless potential of this new-old medium.


Spam of the day:

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These are people interested in your business category.
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Man, I’ve got traffic. My Project Wonderful balance after having ad boxes up for a dozen years reaches to nearly three hundred dollars. Woo, rolling in it!

Making Plans For Nigel, And For Anybody Else That Wants To See Panels In San Diego

It’s that time again, when San Diego Comic Con starts to release schedules for the panel programs that will be starting in, oh, two weeks time. As has been the trend in recent years, the web-specific programming is all but gone, but there’s still going to be stuff that looks interesting, or has interesting people talking. That’s what we’ll be focusing on.


Preview Night

Teaching with Comics: An Interactive Workshop for Educators
4:00pm — 6:00pm, Room 11

And the legal lessons conclude with fan-centered issues: Fair Use, fanfiction, fanart, fanfilms, and fansuchlike.

Real Life On The Page
12:00pm — 1:00pm, Shiley Special Events Suite, San Diego Central Library

This is a first — a event on Preview Night that looks interesting. Representatives of Stanford, Portland State, an d Southern Illinois Univsities, along with University of North Carolina, talking with folks from MIT Press and a charter school company.

I’m giving this a recommendation because I think there will be come good talk at this presentation, but please take anything said by representatives of a charter school company (one with a manager from Bain — Mitt Romney’s predatory investment company — on the board of directors) with a grain of salt. If I get over there, I’ve got some questions about why the entire charter industry seems to fail at their primary task while enriching the owners and senior officers of the charter companies.


Thursday

Border Narratives: Voices From Beyond The Wall
10:00am — 11:00am, Shiley Special Events Suite, San Diego Central Library

Art always has been, and always will be, political. San Diego is this close to Mexico in geographic terms, but further away than ever in all other senses. Listen to what people who experience that distance have to say.

Writing And Drawing The Past
10:00am — 11:00am, Room 32AB

History in comics and treating it right; includes Thi Bui, Jason Lutes, Noah Van Sciver, and Jen Wang.

Comic Book Law School 101: “I Have This Cool Idea . . .”
10:30am — 12:00pm, Room 11

As in previous years, three sessions dealing with IP law, and good for 1.5 hours of continuing education credit for California lawyers.

Spotlight On Lynn Johnston
11:00am — 12:00am, Room 32AB

Fun fact: I once sold Lynn Johnston a POOP sign.

Oni Press Presents: Your Best Pitch Yet
11:30am — 12:30pm, Room 8

C Spike Trotman sighting #1, on a panel with Oni Press’s Ari Yarwood (executive editor )and Sarah Gaydos (editorial director of licensed publishing), Christina “Steenz” Stewart (editor, Lion Forge), and others.

Marvel Animation: Marvel Rising
3:15pm — 4:15pm, Room 6DE

I mention this only becuase the panel will include forthcoming Squirrel Girl actress Milana Vayntrub, and I love how all the success Squirrel Girl has had makes the correct heads explode in astonishment and horror.

YA Comics FTW!
3:30pm — 4:30pm, Room 4

The best original graphic novels being made these days are pitched to a YA audience. Panel includes Jen Wang, Scott Westerfeld, Molly Ostertag, and Tillie Walden.

Original Graphic Novels: From Concept To Creation
5:00pm — 6:00pm, Room 9

Ideas, everybody that creates stuff tells us, are the easy part. See how to execute with Aminder Dhaliwal, Emil Ferris, Thi Bui, Tillie Walden, and Larry Marder, moderated by Jessica Tseang.

Karoke Komix: Sing Along With Bob The Angry Flower!
5:30pm — 6:30pm, Room 4

Webcomic-adjacent panel! Sort of!

Superstars In Children’s Graphic Novels
5:30pm — 6:30pm, Room 26AB

Molly Ostertag again, with Nina Matumoto, Jarrett Krosoczka, Aron Steinke, Ian Boothby, and some guy named Jeff Smith, did something called BONE?

Comics PR And Marketing 101
6:30pm — 7:30pm, Room 8

C Spike Trotman sighting #2, with Chip Mosher from comiXology, Elsa Charretier, Hope Nicholson, Richard Starkings, and Abigail Jill Harding.

The Annual Comics Journalism Panel: Chronicling The New Comics Canon
7:00pm — 8:00pm, Room 23ABC

Included because it was one of two (2) programs I found so far that mention the word webcomics. Panel includes With Heidi Mac, Valerie Complex, Rob McMonigal, Kat Overland, and Fred Van Lente.

Webcomics Advocates And The Webcomics Gathering
8:00pm — 9:00pm, Room 23ABC

And this was the other.


Spam of the day:

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I am honestly at a loss to decide which part of that text is creepiest.

Counting Down To The Holiday

Okay so our Friends To The North celebrated their big holiday already, and we here in ‘Merika won’t until tomorrow, but the holiday doldrums are well upon us. Not much going on, but there is one thing to keep an eye out for in the coming weeks:

On July 17 we’re Kickstarting The Nib Magazine, a 100 page print quarterly. The first four issues — Death, Family, Empire and Scams — have been in the works all year and we will hit send to the printer the second it’s funded.

All new comics every issue — journalism, strips, Nib crew, Intercept journalists, names from mainstream comics. I can’t wait to drop who is on board.

That from The Nib editor and driving force Matt Bors, who’s shepherded the editorial/reportage comics site from (intermittently neglected) Medium section to big-ass book to recurring calendar to animated series, the contributors to which keep showing up in consideration of various awards.

You’ve got two weeks notice. Be prepared.

And I just realized that I haven’t discussed this year’s Eisner nominations, on account of they came out while I was at Camp. As we’ve seen in the past forever or so, the distinctions between Best Digital Comic and Best Webcomic are confusing and/or confused, and which are described as:

For the Best Digital Comic category, works must be longform — that is, comparable to comic books or graphic novels in storytelling or length. Webcomics similar to daily newspaper strips, for example, would not be eligible. Digital comics should have a unique URL, be part of a webcomics site, or otherwise stand alone (not be part of a blog, for instance).

So webcomics are defined by what they aren’t rather than by what they are, but for the most part they’ve come to largely be creator-owned work without publisher gatekeeping (although there are a couple of fascinating exceptions in the Best Webcomic Category. This year’s nominees are:

Best Digital Comic

  • Bandette, by Paul Tobin and Colleen Coover (Monkeybrain/comiXology)
  • Barrier, by Brian K. Vaughan and Marcos Martin (Panel Syndicate)
  • The Carpet Merchant of Konstaniniyya, by Reimena Yee (reimenayee.com/the-carpet-merchant)
  • Contact High, by James F. Wright and Josh Eckert (gumroad.com/l/YnxSm)
  • Harvey Kurtzman’s Marley’s Ghost, by Harvey Kurtzman, Josh O’Neill, Shannon Wheeler, and Gideon Kendall (comiXology Originals/Kitchen, Lind & Associates)
  • Quince, by Sebastian Kadlecik, Kit Steinkellner, and Emma Steinkellner, translated by Valeria Tranier (Fanbase Press/comiXology)

Best Webcomic

I’ll go out on a limb and say that Carpenter & Powell, and Halpern & Sloan were doing Work For Hire; I’ll also note that O’Neill’s The Tea Dragon Society is functionally indistinct from what the Eisners call a Digital Comic — to the extent that she and it are also nominated in the category of Best Publication for Kids (ages 9–12).

Outside the immediately applicable categories, you’ll find Giant Days (John Allison, Max Sarin, and Liz Fleming) nominated as Best Continuing Series, Spinning (Tillie Walden) in both Best Publication for Teens (ages 13-17) and Best Reality-Based Work, What Is Left (Rosemary Valero-O’Connell) in both Best Single Issue/One-Shot and Best Coloring, and Elements: Fire (edited by Taneka Stotts) in Best Anthology¹.

The Eisner Awards will be presented on Friday, 20 July, as part of San Diego Comic Con. Best of luck to all the nominees.


Spam of the day:

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I’ve often wondered if there was some way to make Russian mail-order bride spam not the ickiest thing in the spam filters, and … ick. Just ick.

_______________
¹ Presumably, if it wins, Stotts will have Shing Yin Khor devise some means of breaking up the statue into components that can be distributed to the contributors.

Vermont Is Lovely In The Summer

I first noticed things yesterday at the twitterfeed of the Center For Cartoon Studies, who teach a lot of folks How To Comic; the announcement was for a particular workshop with a universally-regarded creator:

CCS Summer Workshop: Creating YA Graphic Novels, July 30-Aug 3. @yalsa award winning author @JoKnowles teams up with Ignatz winner and Eisner-nominated cartoonist @TillieWalden ’16 to teach this incredible five-day workshop: https://www.cartoonstudies.org/summer-workshops-2/ … #comics #graphicnovel

But here’s the thing — this is just one of a whole stack of summer sessions at CCS! If you follow that link, you end up at a page full of workshops:

CCS 2018 SUMMER WORKSHOPS

  • Drawing and Writing Single Panel Comics with Hilary Price: June 11-14
  • Cartooning Studio with Luke Howard and Jarad Greene: June 25-29
  • Graphic Memoirs with Melanie Gillman: June 26-30
  • Beginning Animation with Alec Longstreth: July 9-13
  • Create Comics: with Beth Hetland and Luke Howard July 16-20
  • Creating Graphic Novels for the Young Adult Market with Jo Knowles and Tillie Walden: July 30-August 3
  • Graphic Novel Workshop with Paul Karasik: July 30-August 3 or August 6-10
  • Queer Comics with Tillie Walden: August 6-10 (sold out, call for waitlist)

So in addition to Tillie Walden (who’s spent the past 18-24 months exploding onto the comics scene, with Spinning being just the most visible of her work), you’ve got Melanie Gillman (whose As The Crow Flies has been tearing up the critical acclaim and award nominations since it hit print with Iron Circus) from the general realm of Webcomics.

As an aside, one of the hallmarks of a good educational institution is when people stay associated with it after graduation; Walden is a 2016 graduate, Jarad Greene got his MFA at CCS before taking a job in the admin arm, Beth Hetland also took an MFA before joining the faculty of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Luke Howard got yet another MFA before joining the CCS faculty.

Add in the expertise of the workshop leaders (Hilary Price has been awarded Best Newspaper Strip by the NCS four times; Longstreth and Howard are Ignatz winner and nominee respectively; Karasik has an Eisner), and you’ve got some high value being shared. The tuition varies from US$600 – US$1000, with an option to extend Karasik’s workshop for eight weeks only (an additonal US$1200), and options to get college credits for an additional fee.

Yeah, it’s a lot of money, but if you want to up your game rapidly, a four-day intensive correction of your trajectory as a creator could be worth as much as a year or two of self-discovery. Only you can determine if the investment in your skills is worth the money, but at the very least it’s a pretty spot to spend a working vacation.


Spam of the day:

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That placeholder only works if it’s properly parameterized and you supply a list of values to substituted in. Come on, spammers, it’s not like we didn’t get taught how to do this in Mail Merge 25+ years ago!

It’s Like Saturday In San Diego In Here

Okay, it was Saturday, but Hell’s Kitchen by the Intrepid in a early April is a far cry from SDCC. Mark Siegel of :01 Books was the one that drew the comparison (at least, I think that’s what he said; as I’ve mentioned previously, he is a soft-spoken man and it was noisy), and he’d know.

He’d best get used to Saturday at San Diego bumping up a notch or two, as they’ll be doing in-booth events this year with various McElroys to celebrate the launch of The Adventure Zone: Here There Be Gerblins at San Diego, and that fandom is tenacious¹. Hardcore fandom is something I haven’t seen at MoCCA Fest since, I dunno, the last time Kate Beaton was there?

  • In addition to running a rapidly-expanding empire, Siegel was previewing his own work as well; the 5 Worlds series debuted last year about a month after MoCCA, and this year book two will do the same. I complimented Siegel on the unexpected turn at the end of Book 1 (let’s say that it’s unusual to have the I am your father-level reveal at the start of your five-part saga instead of at the two-thirds mark to set up the end); I wondered how you keep building on a situation like that. He’s got a plan, though, and we’ll see how it turns out on 8 May.
  • Meanwhile, :01’s executive editor Callista Brill was more than happy to talk about the process of ramping up new people, of releasing twice as many books as two years ago², and making sure things don’t get missed. We talked about my concerns regarding The Prince And The Dressmaker and she confirmed what I’d suspected — writer/artist Jen Wang had no idea about the history of Leopold II and the editorial pass missed it.

    It’ll be addressed in future printings, but I want to acknowledge that Brill didn’t try to underplay or deny the mistake; they made it, they own, they’re fixing it in future printings, and it’s still likely that very, very few people would have ever noticed it. Some things you do because it’s the right thing to do, regardless of how much it could fly under the radar. Everybody over there is good people.

  • Good people work with good people, too. Be Prepared from Vera Brosgol debuts in a few weeks, everybody’s excited for Island Book by Evan Dahm (not tabling for the first time in forever) and Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me (which Rosemary Valero-O’Connell is illustrating for Mariko Tamaki’s words), not to mention the long-awaited Zita The Spacegirl/Might Jack crossover from Ben Hatke.

    And in addition to those? Nearly 30 more books between now and the end of calendar year 2018. All Summer Long by Hope Larson, the final Hidden City book by Faith Erin Hicks, the third Delilah Dirk from Tony Cliff, four Science Comics books, On A Sunbeam by Tillie Walden, two more Cucumber Quest books from Gigi DG, sequels to The Spill Zone and Walker Bean and Margo Maloo, a true tale of the Rwandan genocide, the wrap-up of the Secret Coders series … it’s going to be a busy time, so clear some space on your shelves.

  • And since we mentioned Valero-O’Connell, she’s been busy for the last two years, which was where she picked up the Laura Dean job; she’s got her own graphic novels to come after (the first being an expansion of her thesis comic, Black Sun Rising), she sold out of her absolutely breathtaking mini from Zainab Akhtar’s Shortbox curation, What Is Left³. It’s been a wild ride since she was wearing bobcat-jaw earrings and trying to get college done. She was unbelievably skilled that day I first met her, she’s gotten better in the time since, and she’s only going to keep improving. I can’t wait to see what she’s like in ten years.

And somewhere on the floor, there’s the next Rosemary Valero-O’Connell, the next Carey Pietsch, the next George O’Conner, Rebecca Mock, the next Leguizamo, Neufeld, Powell, Hernandez … probably the next Ngozi Ukazu, to be honest, as the women creators behind the table are definitely outnumbering the dudes, and the white faces are not the overwhelming majority anymore. The future of comics — creators and readers both — is more female, more brown, more queer, more different than it’s ever been before, and it’s about godsdamned time.

See you there next spring. I’ll be the guy with the moustache.


Spams of the day:

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~and~

Meet Hottest Russian Beauties

These are from different spam factories, but they have remarkably similar schticks. Apparently, if you are a {Russian | Asian} mail-order bride and are 24 years old, you like dancing and having Pets [sic]; if you’re 26, you like sport and sprits [sic]; if you’re 29 you like workout and shopping [again, sic]. Oh, and you’re definitely named Salome, Nana, Karina, or Victoria. It’s like there’s a template out there that gets chesty stock photos stuck into it.

_______________
¹ As it was, a giveaway of a few dozen galleys signed by artist Carey Pietsch caused an aisle-clogging knot easily equivalent to that a day earlier for the Check, Please! giveaway. A’course, Ngozi Ukazu wasn’t at MoCCA and so that crowd dispersed rapidly.

² Granted, they’ve got about three times the staff, but getting them up to speed means that the extra hands can actually be a detriment until they find their feet. Also, they were viciously overworked before the expansion, and the up-staffing means that they are now merely overworked in the ordinary sense. Some day, they may get down to non-crazy-person levels of work:hours in the day.

³ I made a point of putting a copy in front of comics power agent Judy Hansen, and rumor has it Mike Mignola had effusive praise for it.

Comics Includes Everybody

Everybody loves comics. Everybody can make comics, to whatever degree they feel they can either produce words + pictures themselves, or to find somebody that can help them.

  • Case in point, right near the first floor entrance of MoCCA Fest, acclaimed actor, playwright, monologuist, and Eisner nominee John Leguizamo had a table, talkin’ comics and taking pictures with people. In another context, he would have been an object of intense scrutiny and mobbing, but here he was just another vendor, albeit one with somewhat higher name recognition. I am confident in my judgment that there were far bigger throngs a little ways down the room a little while :01 Books was giving out galleys of volume 1 of Check, Please! (due for release in September). Anybody can find a topic that people will want to read in comics.
  • Case in point, also right near the first entrance, George O’Connor had his table, and I spent some time in my annual ritual of nerding out over greek myths, particularly in the context of his latest Olympians book, Hermes (a review copy of which I recently received from Gina Gagliano & company over at :01). I loved this book, I told O’Connor. Hermes is a dick, and we laughed, but also spent time talking about how this book got to do the near-impossible — give Hera (long-suffering wife of Zeus, and famed persecutor of his various lovers) a sense of humor¹.

    He was also glad to learn I’d laughed at the the dick jokes he got past his editors (the first of which is on page one). Somewhere, a young kid is reading the legends of Hermes and those are flying right over their head; someday they’re going to realize what was happening in those panels and laugh their head off. There’s always something extra in comics.

  • Case in point: not far from O’Connor, not far from Leguizamo, Nate Powell and Andrew Aydin were tabling with various comics but especially the three books (or box set, if you prefer) of March. A goodly chunk of Powell’s original pages were on display in the second floor art gallery as well, from March and from The Silence Of Our Friends (an earlier story of the civil rights era). It was an honor to tell Powell how important March is, and how much I’m looking forward to the next series, Run. In comics, there’s always the opportunity to convey a message.
  • Case in point: on Sunday morning, I found Josh Neufeld with his various collections of docu-comics; I complimented him on his collaboration with Brooke Gladstone, The Influencing Machine. I noticed that an older work of his, Terms Of Service (about privacy in the age of digital behemoths), a co-publication with Al-Jazeera America, was on the table.

    It’s unusually relevant just now, and I was happy to pick up a copy. While he was sketching in it, I mentioned that I had a Gladstone-crocheted hat², and he was happy to see it, as he’d never seen one before. In comics, there’s always a connection between people you hadn’t anticipated.

  • Case in point, on Sunday morning, the National Cartoonists Society booth was manned by Ed Steckley, and I introduced myself as one of the contributors to the nominating process for the webcomics awards. He was charming and very thankful for the effort (he oversees a lot of the process for all of the division awards each year, so he knows how much work goes into it).

    As it turns out, the awards nominations were announced later that day³; it’s a lot of work that Steckley went to (plus the webcomics constributing committee, plus various chapters working to help with logistics), but it’s worth it, because everybody loves comics.


Spam of the day:

OWN_HER_P*$$Y

This came from Erika and on first glance I thought Huh, Erika Moen is slacking on the consent a bit, but then I realized that was stupid and saw it was from Erika S, where the S stands for sucks, or spammer.

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¹ Hermes himself is yet another of Zeus’s bastards, but this one she likes. He kills off Argus, the hundred-eyed guardsman of Io (one of Zeus’s previous conquests and currently on Hera’s shit list) and she muses Zeus was smart to send Hermes to do this. I just can’t stay mad at that guy.

² Which she offers up as premiums during pubic radio pledge weeks. It’s great hat, and Neufeld needs to get Gladstone to make him one.

³ In Online Comics — Short Form, you have Gemma Correll, Lonnie Milsap, and Mike Norton. In Online Comics — Long Form, you have John Allison, Vince Dorse, and Ru Xu. Also, Tillie Walden is nominated in Graphic Novels for Spinning.

My preference (NB: I’m not a voter) for Short Form would be Correll, and Dorse has won in Long Form previously, so I’d prefer Xu or Allison there. But honestly, it’s a good set of nominations. The awards will be given out Memorial Day weekend at the NCS annual confab, this year in Philadelphia.

New Things Of Interest

How’s everybody doing? First full week back to everything? First working Monday of the new year? Mine’s been pretty Mondayish, but it’s starting to look up. Let’s see what we can look forward to in the nearish (and in one case, fairly immediate) future.

:01 Books has shared its Fall 2018 release list, and that includes first looks at some covers.

  • For example, Castle In The Stars: The Moon King is the second half of a French BD that is very early-period Miyazakiesque (think Laputa) adventure tale; I’ll give it a review along with the first volume (which is excellent) when it releases (the books are, individually, a little too short to review alone).
  • Drew Weing’s Margo Maloo series continues with The Monster Mall, which I suspect will be a more than satisfying successor to the first volume in the adventures of the Monster Mediator.
  • And as long as we’re talking webcomickers, :01 announced the newest in the Science Comics series, this one written by science communicator/cute critters comics creator extraordinaire Rosemary Mosco. She’s partnered up with Jon Chad on art for Solar System: Our Place In Space. I’m a little surprised that it wasn’t to do with the sort of stuff you’d find on a terrestrial nature walk (birds, snakes, bugs), since Mosco is known for that, but it will be adorable (because all of Mosco’s stuff is adorable). Just check out her description:

    I’m so excited! Here’s the cover reveal for my graphic novel with @jon_chad. It’s about space, how it’s ok to be both brave and scared, and A NERDY SNAKE IN AN IMPROBABLE SPACE SUIT.

    Oh, and it’s out September 18th. Sorry, I should have mentioned that but I got distracted by the snake (his name is Mr. Slithers).

    Did I say she was known for things like snakes? Never doubt Mosco. She’ll probably work in bird parts somehow.

  • The big reveal, though, is the cover of the first combined volume of Check, Please! from :01; subtitled Hockey, it’ll cover the first two years of Ngozi Ukazu’s delightful (and zeitgeist-tapping) gay bro college hockey players love story (with pie). This is gonna sell a zillion copies.
  • And not all of the books have gotten the tweet treatment yet, but the announcement contains news of the third Nameless City book (The Divided Earth) by Faith Erin Hicks, the print collection of Tillie Walden’s On A Sunbeam, the final volume of Secret Coders by Gene Yang & Mike Holmes, a new Cucumber Quest collection by Gigi DG, another Science Comics volume on The Brain, a Zita The Spacegirl box set, the long-awaited next volume in the Walker Bean series, and more. It’s gonna be a busy fall.

And, for those of you that don’t want to wait, Ethan Kocak continues his fascination with elongated critters by launching a new comic. Punchy Punches Everyone is about a hard-boiled mantis shrimp private eye that … well, the title sort of says it all, and mantis shrimp punches are not something you want to screw around with. I’ll be honest here; I’m not sure how long Kocak can keep up the joke, but I’ll be there as long as he manages to do so.


Spam of the day:

[FREE GUIDE] Learn How Bitcoin is Creating Millionaires?

I’m guessing that, much like the California Gold Rush didn’t make many miners rich but did start the fortunes of mercantile empires (and a guy named Levi Strauss) from all the stuff they sold to those chasing fortunes in the gold fields, any Bitcoin-adjacent millionaires are mostly among those that are cobbling together special “mining rigs” out of extra CPUs and video cards they have hanging around and selling them at a vicious markup to those that think they’ll get rich on cryptocurrency.

Some Good News, Sorely Needed

So it’s nearly the weekend and who the hell knows what’s happening in the world at large (much less the world of [web]comics). Let’s focus on some happy thoughts.

  • Tillie Walden has been having a heck of time the past twelve months. At SPX last year she took two Ignatzen, then she launched her first webcomic, then the buzz started building for her debut graphic novel (which turned out to be brilliant), and she’s been guesting and paneling at seemingly every prestigious comics show in CY 2017. Not bad for having just turned 21.

    For those that thought said webcomic was great and also thought that there should be a way to reward Walden for it, your moment has come:

    We’re SO EXCITED to be publishing the amazing @TillieWalden’s graphic novel ON A SUNBEAM next year!

    Makes perfect sense; :01 Books are already Walden’s publisher on Spinning, and :01 head Mark Siegel is very open about wanting his imprint to be the sort of place that keeps the well-fitting creators around forever. And given the lead times on book production¹, this is an incredibly tight turnaround — no more than 15 months from now. I know of books at :01 that were announced last year for Fall of 2019.

    (And side note from the announcement embedded in the tweet: Seth Fishman — no relation to Desmond — is rapidly becoming one of the two or three most important people in the comics publishing world, representing some of the best in indie/webcomics³ in between writing his own books. Heck of a nice guy, too.)

    So congrats to Walden, congrats to :01, and congrats to everybody that will get to read On A Sunbeam on paper. The next 3 to 15 months can’t come quickly enough.

  • And for those looking forward seven months or so, applications for the 2018 iteration of VanCAF are now available. Saturday and Sunday, 19 and 20 May at the Roundhouse with guests TBA, but VanCAF has had one of the best exhibitor curations of recent years, so I’m entirely confident the lineup will be great.

    Applications are open until 31 October, and note that they give priority to comics artists (as opposed to illustrators/animators/other artists) with new works debuting at or around the show, who represent all the communities of Vancouver and around. PNW, this is one of your moments to shine.

Okay, I’m out for the weekend, and quick note that I’ll be traveling for work on Monday, so maybe no post. If you’re in Canada, Happy Thanksgiving.


Spam of the day:

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This spam was for glasses and I’ll give ’em this — the image that they used is pretty much exactly the frame of my glasses, just in black instead of silver. Still think I’ll stick with my Warbys, though.

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¹ I’m pretty sure every time I’ve check the publication info on a book from :01, it’s indicated that it’s printed in Dongguan City, Guangdong province in China. Printing in China means there’s necessarily a boatload² of time taken up in shipping and customs before stateside distribution can begin.

² I’m so sorry.

³ Kate Beaton, Randall Munroe, the Weinersmiths, Abby Howard, Ryan North, and more.