Remember Yuri’s remote control. (Also here)

Well, I was planning on making Yuri blue, mixing Flineous (she she recently killed) and Kali the Hindu goddess of power. I was even going to post a venn diagram of Kali, Flineous, and a housecat with Yuri being where they all overlap. BUT, I couldn’t make it work without her looking like Neytiri the blue Pandorian from the movie “Avatar” (or Zhaan from “Farscape” if you’d rather). After much fussing and fidgeting and playing with various hues I decided on her new color scheme. Not what I had planned, but I am very pleased with it nonetheless.

Oh, and Dustin is back. You’d be amazed how many times I count the humans in each strip as I draw them (I know there’s SIX! SIX humas!) and then make sure I know where each character is. So easy to forget.

Let’s see… a few links. Tom Walker posted a new SS Myra, of course. And I received the amazing collection of Dicebox in the mail this week (with my own short comic of the charcaters in it), and am champing the bit to read it. Erika Moen and Jeff Parker finished their 102 page webcomic “Bucko” which is a very fun read (and they’re having a store sale to celebrate).

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Tom’s got a new SS Myra up (NSFW).

Hey, it occurred to me. My readership here is about 3 times the size of when I did my comic “Little Dee,” and so many of you might not know that strip (or my comic “Bruno”). “Little Dee” was designed to be a classic newspaper strip, heartwarming but weird enough for both  kids AND adults to like it. It ended in 2010, but I’m currently re-running it with author commentary. It did pretty well in readers and reviews, and was even under contract with United Syndicate for a year. So, anyhow, here’s a sampler. For links: The STRIPS. The ORIGINAL ARTWORK FOR SALE. The STORE.

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I have to start in on con reports, although 4 in a row kinda is daunting. And so… not today.

But huge. HUGE! I mean, they are asking other labs to double-check first, but the finding: neutrinos can travel faster than light. Amazing. Even breathtaking. I mean, it’s no greased dark light speed, but what is?

Of course, I’ve read some articles saying that it shows we can travel back in time, and I’m just not yet buying that. I mean, already we’ve found that on the atomic level things don’t confirm to normal physics in other ways. but whatever, who knows. It’s still frikkin’ amazing.

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Okay, I have my con schedule figured out. Thanks to Onezumi for making last-minute room for me at InterventionCon, (Shaenon Garrity, Peter Abraams, Bill Holbrook, and Jennie Breeden will all be there too, yay!) Thanks to Holly and Jefferey for making space for me at at the TopatoCo tables at SPX and MICE.

Sep 10-11, Bethesda, MD
SPX Small Press Expo

Sep 16-18, Rockville, MD
InterventionCon (Pre-reg discount rate of $40 ends on September 1st)

Sep 24, Cambridge, MA
MICE Comic Expo

Oct 1-2, San Francisco
APE Comic Con?

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Congratulations again to Studio Foglio for winning this year’s “Best Graphic Story” for Girl Genius. io9 sums up the Hugo Awards for you.

Been a good week. I’ve been reading “Swann’s Way” by Proust, which my brother gave me… maybe… 6 years ago? Slow and sleep-inducing, but with such adoringly lovely imagery, I think it’s colored my whole week (luckily I’d written this weeks scripts ahead of time). Summer finally arrived, I bought a muffin tin, had sorbet with Matt, and beth and I began harvesting the summer’s lettuce. yum!

I shipped the Purfin M-32 shirts, so expect those soon.

Oh, and I bought a ticket for my east coast travels, so, if you’re in Bethesda, Boston, or NYC — I’ll be attending comic conventions in your city in September (and San Francisco the first weekend of October). Look in the column on your right for more info!

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So, I have removed the “Purfin M-32″ shirt. It was available for sale for 27 hours and there were zero sales. I know that some of you simply planned to buy it later in the week, but I feel that if an entire day has passed with no sales, it must not be a good enough design. I’ll try to have a new one soon.

In the exciting news of copyright (as brought to my attention by the amazing Dylan Horrocks), some macaque monkeys took pictures of themselves. For starters, they are adorable! And for finishers, it brings up the question of who owns the copyright? The company who represents the person who owned the camera are claiming, if nothing else: YOU don’t. Ah, it’s a funny world.

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Hey, you people in the Seattle-Tacoma area!

I’ll be tabling at NORWESCON this Thur-Sat April 21-23! Come come on by. I’ll have a couple pieces in the art show and will be tabling in the artist area in these time slots:

Thursday 4-7
Friday 1-5
Saturday 2-6

See the SITE for full details, but the skinny: the con runs April 21-24, and it’s at the:
Doubletree Hotel, Seatac Airport (yes, you can take the light rail there)
18740 International Blvd.
Seatac, WA 98188

I can’t think of anything more to write about the Portland Stumptown Comic Fest, except that I had a lovely time. My friend, Indigo Kelleigh, who organizes the fest was interviewed on Outlook Portland, which you can watch on Youtube, pretty cool.

Also, Danielle has some sweet cards up on her site, for when you’ve screwed up. “I sowwy!”

Hope all is well with everyone. I’ve been very busy working hard, but it’s spring, and I’m feeling good and in a much better mind-frame than Pierrot. Whoot! :)

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I’m writing this blog Sunday morning before the last day of the Stumptown comic fest (after which, we’ll be driving north back to Seattle, getting in past the Spacetrawler-update hour). Which means for now I can only give you a half con report.

But first, let me remind you people in the Seattle-Tacoma area, I’ll be tabling at Norwescon THIS  weekend April 21-23!  Come come on by. I’ll have a couple pieces in the art show and will be tabling in the artist area in these time slots:
Thursday 4-7
Friday  1-5
Saturday 2-6

Okay, Stumptown.

I didn’t walk around and say hello to people yet (will do that today), but I had breakfast with Kevin (and sat with him while we made jokes all day at our table), and he told me about his new graphic novel he’s plotting. We bumped into Vera who I haven’t seen for ages (and who’s new book Anya’s Ghost is coming out soon). While we were setting up our table, Phil Foglio stopped by and we chatted for a bit (bongos, who knew?), and I also got to say hello to all my friends in the immediate area: Kip, Dylan, Erika, Bill, and Barry.

Kevin and I were tabling right next to Mike Russell, who I’d like to talk about. I met Mike in 2001 or so, when I had just moved to Portland and was still writing Bruno. And through the years I’ve always enjoyed his company an highly valued his thoughts — in fact, he was one of the people who gave me editorial advice with Spacetrawler before I started it. He also did a few fill-in strips for my comic Little-Dee, which really caught me off guard because although I knew him, I hadn’t read any of his gag writing, and I thought these strips he did for me were really funny. So, I was very pleased when he began writing “Culturepulp” a comic about the goings-on in Portland. And then recently he created a comic about a short vampire with long teeth — “the sabertooth vampire“, which was not only very well received, but he actually made zines of it. So… for the first time… he’s been at a Portland comic fest with something really to sell. And I was SO glad to see he was busy ALL DAY. You’re awesome, Mike!

Also, the Kinks’ song “Paranoia, the destroyer” has been going through my head this morning, only, instead of those lyrics, it’s been “I am Dora, the explorer.” Which is why my brain is a sketchy place to live.

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This weekend I’ll be down in Portland for the Stumptown Comic Fest, tabling with my great friend Kevin (who has a zine out of his comic Wanderlost. Yay!) The fest is April 16 & 17 at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, OR. See their site for details and ticket info($7 one day, $12 weekend pass). Below is where we’re sitting “C-28″ (click on map for larger map)

And after today’s strip you can claim that you’re all educated about South American colonialism and reductions — You can say you’ve watched DeNiro in “The Mission” AS WELL AS read Spacetrawler. What more do you need?

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Taxes, a short hike, a late night, the cat’s destroying the first version of today’s strip (fortunately only lettered), and the full colors posted a half hour late. All-in-all, I don’t think I did so bad today.

No con report done though. So, in the meantime, buy a t-shirt!

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