Thank you all who meandered over to my store at TopatoCo. I appreciate the support from you all, the readers of Spacetrawler. Truly, thank you.

All is well here. Started writing a novella this week. That was unexpected. But mostly I’m just trying to keep up on all my projects and exceed my own writing and drawing expectations for them, as well as provide emotional support for my sweetie who’s a few weeks from finishing Grad school. Overall, my head has been a bit fuzzy between the ears when I look up from my desk. A bit punchy.

In case any of you had difficulty imaging Chuck Norris threatening you by saying, “butter pats,” here you go.

Lastly, I thought I’d talk about the whole death thing briefly.

First off, for anyone wondering: Flineous is dead. Just like Growp is dead, and Dal. This is no Baloo the bear situation. If I go down some road later which brings characters back to life in some sci-fi way, that’s something else entirely. But he’s dead. If you need a moral: torturing people is not cool, and you may face retribution.

Why kill characters? It seems somewhat taboo to do so, possibly because of our culture demanding writers to leave avenues open for writing sequels. But I wrote it this way because it was how I thought the story should be written. It’s a complex story, and I feel these deaths both define the world they are in as well as who they are as people. And also, know that I don’t take any of these deaths lightly, even if it seems frivolous. When it gets made into an awesome SciFi channel series, they can have the characters live in that version as long as they want.

Now, more importantly, it’s time for a cup of hot chocolate.

Oh, and Tom Walker tells me to remind you a new SS Myra is up and it’s DEFINITELY Not Safe For Work (NSFW). But here’s the link.

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Phew. Bus back to Massachusetts again. It’ll be Boston this weekend with TopatoCo for the MICE convention. Cambridge is a sweet town, and I think this’ll be a really fun show.

So, traveling is going well. I love traveling, visiting friends, meeting new people. I was so happy to see my friend in NY who has a new baby, and to cook food and wander around aimlessly with old friends. But I’m also really looking forward to my sweetie, the cats, and my own pillow.

Skin-Horse has a new site design, looking sharp Shaenon and Jeffrey!

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I had a lovely time at InterventionCon. And even though I really came to them last-minute, Onezumi and Harknell totally found a place for me in the whole thing, I really appreciate it. And thanks to the amazing Gloria Chapa who made sure all us guests had the support we needed. You guys were great, thank you.

And it was so good to see Shaenon Garrity and Pete Abrams, and also to meet Jeffrey Channing Wells, Jennie Breeden, and T Campbell among many.

And the conventioning is still not over. This coming weekend I’ll be doing the Saturday-one-day-indie-comics expo MICE up in Boston, and then the next weekend APE in San Francisco. And then I rest for a wee little bit. Well, probably not.

Oh, an amusing link from Fish in the comments last week, but nicely tied into today’s strip: the world of REAL Bar-Bots.

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A good weekend of enjoying beautiful weather. Beth and I canoed around Boston Harbor (in Olympia, WA, not in Massachusetts). And I just saw a small production of “Pirates of Penzance” at the Greenlake Bathhouse, put on by a middle-school aged cast, which was delightful.

A few thanks for Spacetrawler shout-outs… Don Ahe of the awesome webcomic “Road Apples Almanac” wrote a blurb about Spacetrawler about a year ago HERE, Lys wrote a blurb about Spacetrawler about a half a year ago HERE, and Mark Grealish wrote a blurb about Spacetrawler about a year ago HERE. On a related topic, let me know if you write a review of Spacetrawler anywhere, I’m (usually) happy to link to it, but often am never (or very belatedly) even aware of it.

In other “news,” I just finished reading Zach Weiner’s  first collection of strips “Save Yourself, Mammal!” from his comic strip SMBC. Awesome work, Zach! Check it out. (You may remember I did some art fill-in for the comic “Snowflakes” he writes for.)

Also, Scott Kurtz of PVP along with Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins of Penny Arcade, creators of two of the largest online webcomics, are co-creating a new comic called Tales From The Trenches. I’ll be curious to see how that goes. :)

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I think Yuri got that drink from a party in a themed room at Convergence.

I’m still in Albuquerque, although missing home and the cats. The SciFi Expo kinda’ felt like it was trying to find its identity, but it was nice, quiet, and everyone I met was really nice.

Mostly I just put my attention into enjoying my trip. I spent my free time with my friends Fred, an amazing cook, and Cedra, an amazing painter. We took the tram (recommended by the guy who towed Beth’s car) and hiked around the Sandia Mountains, We went to Tinkertown Museum, we hiked into see the Petroglyph National Monument, saw a music performance “Ballads and Runes” (with a hurdy-gurdy) — outdoors at the Elena Gallegos Amphitheater with the moon rising on one side and the sun setting on the other — who sung a song about an orphaned medieval gal who ends up with her knight (who got off rather easy considering his behavior).

I have put in the order for the Purfin shirts, hopefully I’ll have those in hand and off to you all soon.

Some sketches I did at the con of a Dragon (and knight) for The Hero Initiative and “Joker in Space.” (I forgot to take a photo of the Dinosaur with tentacles and the flying crab and raining teeth, drawn as per request)

Petroglyph National Monument with Cedra and Fred:

Apparently the “Career Pilot” felt I would make a good Hypochondriac. Good. I don’t think I need a degree for that.

And lastly, a Tardis:

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Today’s strip has (give or take) six locations, nine characters, and six punchlines. Hopefully it could still be read, understood and enjoyed by Joe Shmoe if he were to walk in off the street and read it — but still, you all deserve “elite reader” awards. I applaud you. (Not that my goal is to be complex. My goal is to produce good work, which admittedly sometimes gets complex).

Someone wrote me the other day, inquiring (in a friendly manner) if Yuri was a bit of a cyborg “F.U.” at Dresden Codak. And as much as a friendly rivalry amuses me, i wanted to let you all know: unequivocally NO. Aaran Diaz is very talented and I love his work, both Dresden Codak and his blog about making comics: Indistinguishable From Magic are excellent reads.

Although…. in a fight, who would win? Kim or Yuri?…… I’ll let YOU decide.

Below is a doodle I did of Kim:

And lastly: what a day for comic Book releases! Vera Brosgel’s Anya’s Ghost (which I’ve had on pre-order since February), Dave Roman’s Astronaut Academy, and Gene Luen Yang and Thien Pham’s Level up. Nice!

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In the news, we have discovered life on planet Gliese 581g! Or you might practically think that based on all the headlines. From reading the articles, I think all they actually know is that it’s the right temperature (distance from its sun) to not boil or freeze. This is called the “Goldilocks” zone. But they don’t know if there actually is life there, what size the planet is, or if you can get a decent cup of coffee there yet. Starbucks is looking into it.

Beth stuck some ears on me, said “you’re Yuri” and took a picture.

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Link to the Original Artwork

If you missed it, I contributed to Unshelved‘s Book Club with a comic of the Spacetrawler cast discussing Alastair Raynold’s “Chasm City.” Check it out!

Also, what do people think of a possible iphone formatted strip? Any ideas how to improve on this subject (I’m afraid I don’t have the skills to write my own app)

Also, for your notice: you can now be notified by email when the strip updates. Info in the upper right there.

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Link to the Original Artwork

I’ve been a little quiet on the blog front. I have many thoughts and reviews and totally unnecessary things to add below the strip, some of which I’m sure one or two of you may even read. but for now I’m finishing up Dee, doing the pre-press for the last book, and so I’m sapped.

Love you all though. Like a brother.

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Link to the Original Artwork

Well, we are underway. The intro strips, showing the structure of how I tell the tale, introducing the currently major characters, and negotiating their relationship, has settled down… and today is the first day of voyage.

Strap yourself in…. lean back, and… actually, get really comfy, it’ll be a long while, and have a long drink. Maybe several.

And come see me this weekend at The Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle at the Topatoco table!

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