Hustlin’ hustlin’, every day for three or four days at a time, every other month or so I’m hustlin’. It’s hard to be at a convention, trying to hawk some wares that you built with your brain and your fists and your guts, and then realizing the people just are picking up what you’re putting down. That’s when you have to decide on the fly that a t-shirt no one wants is actually $20 baby hammock. Everyone’s got a baby and no one has any place to put them. These aren’t book collections of a webcomic you’ve never heard of. No! These are perfect bound packs of artisanal, small batch, gluten free, sustainable pipe wrapping papers. You know, for when you give a pipe as a gift. And these? These aren’t posters referencing things with which you are totally unacquainted. These are One Page Dream Journals! YEAH! We covered the other side with random images and words to prevent you from going on too long about trying to fight off a hairless wolf with the face of your mother while you take a math test that you didn’t know about because you’re back in 10th grade for some reason. You’ll take ten? You must be really creative and smart.

This Fancy Photo Comic features Jennie, Kris and Dave from Cyanide & Happiness, Angela Melick and DumDum David.

If you missed Part 1, it’s HERE.

Most of these photos came from THIS VIDEO, in which I serenade David Willis in the back of a limo to Emerald City Comicon. A limo is a very silly mode of transportation, and being inside of one makes you feel like doing silly things. “It’s like a car, but LONGER! I’M GOING TO RUB MY BUTT ON EVERYTHING AND STICK MY HEAD OUT OF EVERYTHING ELSE!”

I expect there will be two more ECCC 2015 Fancy Photo Comics. They will likely feature, David. They will certainly not feature any more weird, long cars.

If you missed the Dragon’s Lair 2014 Fancy Photo Comic, it is HERE.

THE FINAL ECCC 2015 Sketch-A-Matic Sketches! All of these are from day 3.

This is part 4. Check out part 1, part 2 and part 3. The final sketch includes an awesome SPECIAL EFFECT that I learned from Kris Wilson. Of course, it negates ever hanging the sketch on the wall, much less framing it. I suggested the recipient build a backlit shadow box to display it in. It… didn’t seem like they were going to. Maybe they were worried about the joinery skills required to build a shadow box. Parents, teach your kids at least 3 forms of joinery. I suggest biscuit, dovetail and dado. To be safe, you should at least give them a primer in mortise and tenon as well. If we don’t teach our children basic and advanced woodworking skills, someone else will. Probably Norm Abram.

If you’re unfamiliar with the Sketch-A-Matic, here’s a bit of info about it: 

INTRODUCING THE SKETCH-A-MATIC!

The idea is simple, but the technology behind it is VAST and COMPLICATED!

It works like this: 

• The willing participant presses the big, red, impressive button
• The machine SPRING TO LIFE whirring and gyrating and buzzing
• When it finishes processing your individual, one of a kind sketch topic, you will hear a distinctive DING!
• 2 topic cards are spit out of the machine and placed on the sketch generation matrix
• The user may then choose to ad a multiplier card that will irrevocably alter the sketch in heretofore unimaginable ways!
• The machine’s operator (known as: The Artist) begins generating the one of a kind sketch using pencils and pens and paper like some horribly out of date 2D printer

EVEN more ECCC 2015 Sketch-A-Matic Sketches. Most of these are from day 3.

This is part 3. Check out part 1 and part 2. In case you were wondering, Picard, Data and Wesley are Ravenclaw, Riker and Deanna are Gryffindor, Geordi and Crusher are Hufflepuff and the Romulans are Slytherin. Warf is a Muggle. I know, I was just as surprised as you are.

If you’re unfamiliar with the Sketch-A-Matic, here’s a bit of info about it: 

INTRODUCING THE SKETCH-A-MATIC!

The idea is simple, but the technology behind it is VAST and COMPLICATED!

It works like this: 

• The willing participant presses the big, red, impressive button
• The machine SPRING TO LIFE whirring and gyrating and buzzing
• When it finishes processing your individual, one of a kind sketch topic, you will hear a distinctive DING!
• 2 topic cards are spit out of the machine and placed on the sketch generation matrix
• The user may then choose to ad a multiplier card that will irrevocably alter the sketch in heretofore unimaginable ways!
• The machine’s operator (known as: The Artist) begins generating the one of a kind sketch using pencils and pens and paper like some horribly out of date 2D printer

COMMENTERS: Feel free to sort the cast of your favorite show into Hogwarts houses. I’ll save you the trouble and do Seinfeld. Jerry and Newman are Slytherin, George is Hufflepuff, Elaine is Ravenclaw and Kramer is Gryffindor.

More ECCC 2015 Sketch-A-Matic Sketches. Most of these are from day 2, with a few from day 3.

In this one you can see some of the same cards that came up in part 1. I try to draw something different each time, even if I get cards I’ve already drawn. Though, I do jump at the chance to draw a giant bag of tacos any time someone gets the “Taco Tuesday” card. This set of sketches marks the first time I’ve ever drawn a kid “Free Willy-ing” a shark (that looks like a dolphin) with a chainsaw. I can finally cross that off my chum bucket list.

If you’re unfamiliar with the Sketch-A-Matic, here’s a bit of info about it: 

INTRODUCING THE SKETCH-A-MATIC!

The idea is simple, but the technology behind it is VAST and COMPLICATED!

It works like this: 

• The willing participant presses the big, red, impressive button
• The machine SPRING TO LIFE whirring and gyrating and buzzing
• When it finishes processing your individual, one of a kind sketch topic, you will hear a distinctive DING!
• 2 topic cards are spit out of the machine and placed on the sketch generation matrix
• The user may then choose to ad a multiplier card that will irrevocably alter the sketch in heretofore unimaginable ways!
• The machine’s operator (known as: The Artist) begins generating the one of a kind sketch using pencils and pens and paper like some horribly out of date 2D printer

Basically I was getting a lot of similar sketch requests at conventions, OR I was getting  a lot of “I don’t know, draw whatever you want,” type requests, so I developed this system to ensure there was always a decisive sketch idea ready to go, and that no two sketches would ever be exactly the same. I’ve tested it out for the first time at Dragon’s Lair Webcomic Rampage in Austin and the results were incredibly amusing. Plus the whole process of “THE MACHINE” is pretty fun.

I had so much fun with the Sketch-A-Matic at Webcomic Rampage, I decided to bring it to Emerald City Comicon. Due to a retweet from my buddy Wil and a reblog on the official ECCC Tumblr, I had people lined up all weekend to “press the button.”

I did a TON of sketches that weekend. I’ll be posting quite a few of them here in (probably) 3 parts. Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll have the Sketch-A-Matic with me at any more shows in 2015 since I’m doing all of my convention appearances as part of Cyanide & Happiness. Maybe I’ll do my next sketch drive using suggestions from the Sketch-A-Matic. Perhaps I could call the sketchee over Skype and go through the whole process with them live. Hmm…

If you’re unfamiliar with the Sketch-A-Matic, here’s a bit of info about it: 

INTRODUCING THE SKETCH-A-MATIC!

The idea is simple, but the technology behind it is VAST and COMPLICATED!

It works like this: 

• The willing participant presses the big, red, impressive button
• The machine SPRING TO LIFE whirring and gyrating and buzzing
• When it finishes processing your individual, one of a kind sketch topic, you will hear a distinctive DING!
• 2 topic cards are spit out of the machine and placed on the sketch generation matrix
• The user may then choose to ad a multiplier card that will irrevocably alter the sketch in heretofore unimaginable ways!
• The machine’s operator (known as: The Artist) begins generating the one of a kind sketch using pencils and pens and paper like some horribly out of date 2D printer

Basically I was getting a lot of similar sketch requests at conventions, OR I was getting  a lot of “I don’t know, draw whatever you want,” type requests, so I developed this system to ensure there was always a decisive sketch idea ready to go, and that no two sketches would ever be exactly the same. I’ve tested it out for the first time at Dragon’s Lair Webcomic Rampage in Austin and the results were incredibly amusing. Plus the whole process of “THE MACHINE” is pretty fun.

Seattle Fancy Bastards need to know these things:

• I will be at booth 110 with David Willis​ all weekend.
• I will have lots of awesome prints, new and old, big and small (ask to see the big ones because they are in a book).
• I will have the Sketch-A-Matic!
• If you buy two prints, you get something free from THE MYSTERY BOX!
• I will have some of my wife’s fantastically geeky jewelry!
• There is a handy map to the booth here.
• I have new flyers, and many of them have coupon codes to the HE online store. GRAB ONE!

As is our tradition, Seattle, you may present me with coffee, confections or tiny bottles of booze to receive my favor. Oh such favor upon thee will I bestow!

Oh sweet merciful crapbastards, Seattle, you are always so good to me. I am on an airplane (the kind in the sky) right now, so please enjoy these convention sketches in lieu of a comic update today. I had an amazing time with my wonderful friends and was, once again, showered with generosity from the Pacific Northwest Fancy Bastards.

If you would like to see some of what I was up to this weekend, please check my twitter feed for #ECCC and #ECCC2014.

See you next year, Emerald City!

Oh, and I ran out of most of my prints early on Sunday. If you weren’t able to get the HE print you wanted at the show, you can always get prints and posters in The HE Store. 

ECCC is my absolute favorite convention of the year, and it is SHOCKINGLY close to happening nowish. David and I will be at booth #1412 right next to Cyanide & Happiness! I will have the leftover DDDT prints, other prints, books, shirts, Wil Wheaton plushies and sketches.

I’ll be doing TWO PANELS: 

• “The Cyanide and Happiness Group Sketch Jam Panel” / Friday, March 28, 6:10pm, Hall B, (Rooms 608-609)
• “The Experiment: Making a Living Doing What you Love” / Saturday, March 29, 6:00pm, ROOM 3AB. THIS is the one I REEEEEEALLY need you to show up for. My first ever totally SOLO panel.

More panel info HERE. 

Seattle always takes AMAZING care of me, but for the uninitiated, offerings in the forms of tasty treats (cookies, cakes, Cadburry Creme Eggs, Starbucks Doubleshots [the tiny cans, NOT the energy drinks]) and tasty booze (DELICIOUS BOOZE) are always accepted and appreciated.

Tiny booze bottles will have their contents slipped stealthily into my drinks at restaurants, while larger bottles will have to contents shared with my cartoonist friends in various hotels rooms in your fair city.

I guess I was only mostly dead. Far be it from me to complain about having the best job in the world, but sometimes the constant travel and convention weirdness does start to take its toll. Angela and I were in a pretty sad state last weekend at Emerald City Comicon, what with each of us having a cold, a cough, a soar throat and various headachings. She had some sweet Canadian cold meds that kept my corpse mostly ambulatory all weekend. I asked a guy at a Seattle pharmacy if we had them in the US and he got real wide eyed and backed away, all the while speaking in hushed, panicked tones into his sleeve. Seattle is a weird place.

COMMENTERS: Have you ever had a job that was pretty great except for one shady, questionable, morally grey, disgusting or totally illegal aspect? What about a great job that was ruined by one not-great person?

Alternate Title: Weekend At Joely’s 

In reality, it was David who should have died last weekend, because Angela and I spent nearly every night coughing on him in stereo. We had grown up beds and David was on the air mattress between us just being blanketed by our expelled phlegmy horribleness. His immune system must have been fortified against attack by the constant regimen of Taco Bell and boxed macaroni he crams into his crambox. His body is so used to being force fed disgusting poison bullshit, that a few germs and viri must seem like a packet of mild sauce.

I never been as sick during a convention as I was during Emerald City Comicon last weekend. I lost my voice immediately and spent the entire weekend trying to interact with fans and fellow cartoonists alike in garbled, mangled cough-whispers and hack-spasmed Tuvan throat singing. I almost broke down during dinner one night when the frustration of noting being able to be heard or understood, constantly having to repeat myself and more often that not just NOT saying anything when I had something to say started to get to me. I hadn’t really thought about how much of my identity was hinged on my voice. Take away my ability to command a room with my voice, tell stories, make jokes, sing, etc. and there isn’t much of ME left. It was pretty depressing, but my friends certainly helped me make the best of it.

COMMENTERS: Have you (or anyone close to you) ever lost an ability and had to relearn it, or otherwise compensate for it? When I was a kid I broke my right thumb and had to learn how to eat with my left hand. Doesn’t sound like that big of a deal, but it took a lot of practice and I can still use silverware ambidextrously.

Despite being sick with a cold and feeling like a burlap sack full of gravel and crap all weekend, Emerald City Comicon was still (as always) a fantastically fun and rewarding experience. Any other show and I might have let my illness dampen my spirits but the organizers and attendees of ECCC shine in every way that make a convention great. I cannot stress enough that THIS is the show you need to be saving up for and traveling to from out of state. It’s gotten bigger and better every year and shows no signs of stopping.

I did my very best not infect my fellow cartoonists and the attendees with my virus, but I expect that the CDC will eventually identify me as Patient Zero in what will come to be known as “The Plague of Nations.” Totes sorry, guys LOL. #yolo

COMMENTERS: Have you ever had a trip, event or highly anticipated whatever sidelined by illness? Did you stay home and rest like a sensible human or did you go, stay out until 4am every night partying like a monster then put yourself in contact with 1000’s of people every day like an even bigger monster? Who does that?

I’ll have books, prints, shirts, Lil’ Wil Plushies and sketches! Check out the new mini-banner/ price sheet I made for ECCC on my Tumblr. It mentions a negotiable fee for AWKWARD STARES, but bring me some Starbucks Doubleshots and tiny bottles of booze and I’ll totally waive that fee.

HOLY CRAPBASTARDS! ME AND WIL MADE “THE CODE” INTO A SHIRT!!!
Get it now @ Sharksplode! Scan it. It really works!

When a Fancy Bastard at Emerald City Comicon walked up, dropped some delicious monies in my cup and said, “Can you draw Wil Wheaton sitting on a throne of dicks?” he seemed almost puzzled at the speed with which I said, “Yup,” and got to work. It was as if he thought I didn’t have that image fully formed in my mind meer nanoseconds after the words escaped his lips. Everything I had drawn up until that point had prepared me to fully realize the dick throne in two dimensions on paper without the slightest hesitation.

ECCC 2012 was a record convention for sketches. The ones shown above are some of my favorites. I personally drew over 50 commissioned sketches in 3 days. At most shows I do 15 or so max, not including quick book doodles. Of those 50, at least 1/3 if not 1/2 involved Wil Wheaton in some fashion. When he and I are exhibiting at the same show there tends to be this fandom wormhole between our booths. Our mutual fans tend to stop at my booth, get a sketch of Wil doing or saying something questionable, then stand in line for hours to get him to sign it, then return it to me for final approval. It’s pretty awesome to think that there are people in the world that hold us both in a similar regard, or at least consider us both as “people that make neat stuff that I like.”

Last year at Phoenix Comicon, Wil and I had this deal going that I would “sexify” any of his Wesley Crusher headshots. His fans would bring their purchased photos to my booth, and I would essentially ruin them by drawing a beard on Wesley and writing “It’s sexy time!” in a speech bubble. That was one of my favorite things ever.

You can read Wil’s quick write up on the con HERE and see the couple that inspired the Nyan Wheaton drawing HERE.

COMMENTERS: What’s your most prized souvenir, signed item, sketch, etc from a celebrity (internet or otherwise) that you got at a signing or convention? 

“George Hurt You” shirts are in the store!!!

Sometimes air travel can be stressful. Like, what is the deal with airline peanuts? And what about that pack of Bloodwolves that always chases you through the airport trying to get you to fight for your place of honor within their pack and claim your wolfbride? And why is there so little legroom? These are the questions be need to be asking.

Having missed my flight home from Emerald City Comicon, I was forced to stay an extra day in Seattle and thus, no regular comic update for today. My bad fortune ended up being David’s good fortune since his plane didn’t leave until 11pm Monday night. We were able to celebrate his birthday in style (and cuddle) and rejoice in the fact that his recent suicide attempt had failed.

My flight back to DFW was at 6am Tuesday morning, a time which I did not appreciate until later when I learned that Dallas and its surrounding suburbs were being destroyed by TORNADOGEDDON 2012 and all flights in or out of DFW would soon be grounded. We got plenty of rain, but no damage to our home or our frail human bodies.

I would like to reiterate that ECCC is THE BEST comic convention in North America. The Fancy Bastards I encountered in Seattle went above and beyond to make me feel welcomed and appreciated. And the cookies… oh sweet baby crocodile-faced Jesus monster clone, there were so many cookies. Also booze. There were so many tiny bottles of booze. We… did things with candy and booze… bad things. Also I danced with a meta-shirt-wearing-Ewok.

I bet there will be a fancy sketch comic tomorrow.

COMMENTERS: Hit me with your saddest airplane/airline related stories, or perhaps your greatest flying triumphs.

Hey, Seattle Fancy Bastards! I will be in your wonderfully overcast hamlet this weekend!  Emerald City Comicon is without a doubt my favorite convention of the year and I am entirely too psyched to be exhibiting at it once again.

Even though the website and the program say I will be at booth 307, I will actually be at booth 306 (just around the corner) with Blind Ferret. You should still stop at booth 307 and spend all kinds of money, because my friends Gordon, Tom and Angela will be there. Angela will be debuting her new book (available for purchase now) and I highly recommend it. I won’t bother listing every other cartoonist or famous geeky person that will be there, because it’s essentially all of them. Seriously, this is THE BEST show.

I will have T-Shirts, books 1 and 2, prints, sketch cards, stickers. I will also sketch in or on anything you like for tips. This includes, but is not limited to sketch books, loose paper, motorcycle helmets (did one last year), faces, butts (dudes and ladies), boobs (dudes and ladies), and shovels.

I am doing 3 shows in the next 6 weeks or so and the cost of travel has hit me INCREDIBLY hard this year. If you are coming to one of the shows, please consider buying something or dropping a few bucks in the tip jar. If you would like to support my endeavors to get out there and see the Fancy Bastards in person you can make a donation. Your contribution will be GREATLY appreciated (cue Sarah McLaughlin song). In lieu of monitary support, I will say that conventions are hungry and thirsty and cookieless work. Feel entirely free to bring Starbucks Doubleshots, Iced Grande Soy Lattes, cookies or whatever to the booth. Those are the things that reall get a cartoonist through the day. Also booze. Just sayin’.

Last year at ECCC I had drinks with Jonathan Frakes. How are you going to top that Seattle? How?! Will I find a golden Batmobile with the keys in it? Seems like it would be too heavy to drive? How’s the mileage on this thing, anyway? Have you seen the price of gas lately? No thanks. I SAID NO THANKS!

C2E2 IN CHICAGO IS THIS WEEKEND!!! I will be there with Randy [Something*Positive], Danielle [Girls With Slingshots] and David [Shortpacked & Dumbing Of Age]! Read more about it HERE.

EWOK STAAAAAARRREEEEEE!!!

THERE IS A NEW HE PODCAST!!! EPISODE 81 – DICK ISLAND

If you preordered HE Book 2, please read the updated shipping times on THIS PAGE.

Here’s a comic that is based on events so true, that to deny them would be to deny the fountain of mucus that is my head. DO NOT DENY IT! I must have some sort of baby blackhole in my sinus cavity that connects to a parallel universe made up entirely of sneeze-based lifeforms. If that last few days are any indication, their entire snot armada has entered our realm and soon we will be building nose-shaped sarcophagi for them to inhabit as they enslave the people of earth. I was positive that I had contracted a con-bug from Emerald City Comicon, especially after hearing that David Willis caught bronchitis. Every time I turned around that weekend he was either spitting into my coffee, licking my food or injecting me with vials of his own blood. Weird guy, that one. Now, I’m starting to think that I wasn’t sick at all and my allergies have leveled up. They’re like a 7th level Chaotic Evil Pollen Ragweed Mage that only rolls 20’s.

I am feeling slightly better today, so hopefully I will only be slightly leaking by the time I leave for Chicago on Thursday. My goal is to give you at least 1 more regular HE comic before I leave, then 2 awesome guest comics, followed by a regular HE, and maybe a LoFi to round out the week. As usual, the monday after a con will probably feature a series of con-sketches.

When Southwest called me to tell me they had found my bag I was in the back of Jason Finn‘s car with Wil on the way to meet Stepto and Marian Call. Jason and Wil were talking Mini Coopers and there was talk radio coming over the car speakers, so I pressed my phone against my right ear as hard as I could and plugged the left one with my little finger. I asked the woman on the other end of the line to repeat herself. “Shredded,” she said. “Shredded?” I replied. “Like we were a polar bear and your suitcase was a seal covered in maple syrup,” she responded.

They couriered what was left of my bag to my hotel later that night. From the extent of the damage I was completely unable to come up with a scenario by which this violation could have actually occurred. It hadn’t simply been dropped or snagged. It seemed as though some sort of manimal had clawed into (or out of) my small rolling suitcase in a blind rage. Can a creature truly hate a piece of luggage? I dare say it can. In my search for a reasonable explantation, Wil offered the Sarlacc pit theory and thus a comic was born. Later in the weekend I would prototype this comic in Wil’s copy of HE Book 2.

[Special thanks to Wil for contributing his first line in panel 1, a reference to his character in the Penny Arcade D&D Podcast.]

I toyed with the idea of continuing the Emerald City Comicon Sketch comics [Part 1 and Part 2] another day, but decided instead just to show you the rest of the sketches I wanted to share in this blog post. I will call this series “Sketches For Celebrities: Both Internet And Otherwise.”

• Stepto and his Book 2 Sketch [sketch closeup]
• Wil and his Book 2 Sketch [sketch closeup]
• Jon Rogers’ Book 2 Sketch (featuring The Doctor and a Leverage cameo)
• Marian and her Book 2 Sketch [sketch closeup]
• Molly Lewis and her Book 2 Sketch [sketch closeup]
• Marian, Molly and Me
• “Meeting Jonathan Frakes” sketch for a fan
• also, a Doctor Who themed commission for two girls who were cosplaying GWS characters, which they enjoyed quite a bit

Commenters: Feel free to offer up more examples of how and why specific airlines lose your luggage. Does JFK have to pay off the mob in “misplaced” golf clubs? Does Newark purposefully chuck your bags in the river to remind you not to go to New Jersey? How about some new slogans for Southwest? I like “Southwest: Hey whattayou Expect?” “Southwest: No Guarantees,” “Southwest: Come Fly The Functional Skies,” and “Southwest: This Whole Thing Is A Scam To Move Pretzels and Diet Coke.”

The only geek greeting you’ll ever need! The Sci-Five!
Get up on that Sci-Five shirt business!

I must have said this 100 times over the course of the last weekend but Emerald City Comicon is THE BEST show of the year. In terms of what? Sales, fan interaction, after hours activities, location/host city, general shenanigans? Yes. The answer is yes. I have never had a weekend so packed with wonderful friends, amazing experiences, and so much excitement in my entire life. Here are some of the highlights in mostly chronological order:

Thursday:

• Southwest lost one of my bags, which delayed me just long enough to run into Wheaton on the way out the airport. We had sushi for lunch. Sushi With Wheaton is my Reel Big Fish cover band [thanks twitter].
• That night Wheaton and I met Stepto, Jason Finn [of PUSA], Marian Call and John Roderick for drinks and Wheaton bought me a beer. Even if you don’t drink a lot of beer, when Wil Wheaton buys you one you drink it.
• Jason Finn took Stepto, Wheaton and I to his AMAZETITS italian restaurant, Via Tribunali, for [no exageration] the best pizza I have ever had in my life.
• Stepto and I went to the Marian Call show at Fremont Abbey. She was dope. Dope and a half in fact.
• Southwest called to say they found my bag. It had been lost in Albuquerque. The lady told me the condition they found the bag in, and I asked her to repeat herself. “Yes… shredded.” Good. I just wanted to make sure I hadn’t suddenly gone deaf with rage.

Friday:

• Day 1 of the show. Angela and I set up an epic booth-situation. She has the same “merchandising” gene that I do, which makes us great booth mates. If you got a pic of our booth, please email it to me.
• Angela and I had a lovely sit-down family-times Tai food dinner with Bill Barnes at his home. We chatted, played ukuleles and had a wonderful time. Bill’s dog loves me the most.
• Me, Angela and a dozen other cartoonists did some bar hopping. Someone who shall remain nameless used the pick-up line, “So what is your favorite kind of time travel?” and it worked. This is how you know you are surrounded by nerds. I was beyond impressed.

And that isn’t even the end! Read the 2nd half of my ECCC recap in the next Fancy Sketch comic post.

Getting a little too pluggy for your tastes? Well, the plugs are paying for my table and hotel at Comicpalooza so how about roll with it just this once and, if you are in the area, come out and see what promises to be a very cool comic/pop culture show.

Meeting Wil Wheaton at Emerald City Comicon was such a thrill that I thought the experience deserved it’s own comic. He’s such a kind and gracious dude. I highly suggest that you check out his various podcasts and books, especially the Memories of the Futurecast and the book what inspired it called [shockingly] Memories of the Future. If you ever wondered what it was like to actually grow up on the set of Star Trek: The Next Generation (especially during the highly questionable first season) this is a must-read.

It’s not a cheesy tell-all, but rather a sweet and hilarious look back and being a part of an amazing pop-culture phenomenon and not being old enough to fully appreciate it at the time. Wheaton looks back on Season 1 with equal parts nostalgia, humor and “WTF were we thinking”. No where else are you going to get this perspective on TNG and it’s truly fascinating. Do yourself a favor and pick it up.

Emerald City Comicon, you have stolen my heart… and perhaps some of my bone marrow. This was by far the most fun (and most profitable) con I’ve ever done. I actually brought about half the books and shirts that I should have. I WILL be back next year for sure. Look for me and Angela in a booth of sorts.

My next con will be Comicpalooza in Houston, TX, March 26-28. Come see me or I will… still have a fun time. Just not with you.

This “comic” is adapted from a commissioned sketch I did for Kitty at ECCC. When I get a sketch request like “please draw Josh vs. a Jedi octopus” my initial internal reaction is something like, “are you just fucking with me?” Then I start to see the inherent challenge and look at it as a… well, a challenge. A beast to be tamed. And tame it I did. Look how tame it is! With Josh and the sea creature and light sabres and struggling and futility and such.

In addition to hanging out with my awesome webcomics friends and making a few new ones, I finally got to meet Wil Wheaton in person. We’ve emailed back and forth a few times but it was nice to see him in meat space. He has a firm handshake that says “I am not Wesley. And don’t be a dick.” I introduced myself and he looks at another guy in the booth and says “this is the guy I was telling you about that does the webcomic and made those Edward shirts.”

So yeah, Rest Of My Life, you’re going to have to try pretty hard to top this weekend.