If you are waiting on your copy of HE Book 2, PLEASE READ THIS!!!

Groverfield T-Shirt and MORE in the HijiNKS ENSUE STORE!

Thanks to a little RT bump from Admiral Wheaton himself I crossed 5000 followers on Twitter last night. The comic above was inspired by the tweets that followed my little milestone, which seemed somehow fitting. Like scattering the ashes of a guy that like to surf in a shark’s mouth or something.

ANOTHER THING: A lot of you have tweeted, emailed or otherwise alerted me to a comic which has received a lot of press in the last couple of days that bears a striking resemblance to my “You’re The Last of The Time Lords, Charlie Brown” comic. The guy that drew it is Adam Koford. He is one of my favorite cartoonists, an incredible talent and a really nice guy to boot. I’ve talked to him and it seems that it really was a case of “same idea/same time.” Adam admits that mine went up first, but this was in no way a ripoff type situation. I actually find it kind of astounding that we did this in the same random week considering that neither Peanuts, nor Doctor Who are current, topical items. Either way no harm, no foul.

For those interested a shirt of my design is in the works, so stay tuned. Also, here’s a preview of my new convention flyer.

COMMENTERS: I’m sure there are more ranks and levels within Twitter. Please give me their names, the number of followers (or the achievement you have to unlock to acquire the title), and the perks or punishments involved.

CHECK IT OUT: I put a desktop version of the “You’re The Last Of The Time Lords, Charlie Brown” comic in The Vault.

You can donate or become a subscriber to get access.

Get your HijiNKS ENSUE Book 2 Preoder on! GO HERE NOW! 1/3 of the Ultimate Fancy Editions are already gone! Also, I can now accept preorders via Check or Money Order.

Thursday Dec. 16th is your last chance to order something from the HE Store and get it by Dec. 24th without paying for Express shipping. GO! SPEND! SPEND LIKE SANTA’S LIFE DEPENDS ON IT!

Tim Minear’s Twitter bio reads like a… well like a list of cancelled shows, most of which I enjoyed and some of which I REALLY enjoyed. Terriers, Angel, Firefly, Wonderfalls, Drive, The Inside, The X-Files, Lois and Clark, The Chicago Code.

I never did see Terriers, but I know it wasn’t actually about dogs. It was about something else which was never properly conveyed by FX’s marketing department. They’ve done such a good job of keeping the show’s premise a secret that, especially now that it is cancelled, mankind will never know its true purpose. FX does that a lot. They managed to conceal the brilliance of It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia with confusing and off-putting commercials from me for three seasons before I caved to Josh and Eli’s collective will and burned through roughly 30 episodes on one sitting. Needless to say it is a fantastic show, and FX obviously had no idea how to present it to new potential viewers. I would argue that it’s continued success stems only from word of mouth brow beating.

But I digress and return my attention to Mr. Minear. He has written on or show-run three of my all-time favorite television programs. The obvious ones being Firefly and Angel, but almost more than those two (okay not more than Firefly) I lament the loss of Wonderfalls. I feel like I’ve talked about it at length in the past so I won’t bore you, but it was one of the most original and captivating fantasy/quirky/dramedy style tv shows ever and perhaps the greatest injustice enacted by The Evil Fox Executive. For not only was it brilliant, but it only aired for four episodes. The season 1 DVD is available and contains the whole 13 (or was it 10?) episode run, and fans of Dead Like Me and Pushing Daisies should do themselves a favor and pick it up.

The Hollywood TV Machine just isn’t meant for guys like Tim Minear and Joss Whedon. I really hope they and others like them keep exploring alternative distribution methods for content. I would love to see an online network run by guys like Whedon and Minear that independently produced well-budgeted series, shorts and features using a direct subscription, pay what you want, or unobtrusive advertising model. Networks aren’t necessary anymore and neither are time slots. Quality shows still require deep pockets but there are other ways to get funding. The future of media (books, comics, TV, movies) is going to be making specific content for a much smaller audience. Mass Appeal is the ideal that gets good shows cancelled and shitty shows a 10th season.

I know we are perhaps decades away from the current TV model dying the way the music industry and newspapers are now, but I promise you it will happen. I like seeing people pave the way for this transition by making their own content and putting it out there for others to enjoy. In that vein my buddy Mikey is making a web-series called Anthony Saves The World that you should check out.

You should also go out and make your own thing. How’s that for a new year’s resolution? Make that thing you’ve always wanted to make. Just start. Start tonight. MAKE SOMETHING. HAVE FUN.

NEW PODCAST! I am doing a new mini-podcast called the LoFijiNKS Podcast where I just talk for 30 min or so. You can listen HERE, subscribe HERE, or iTunes subscribe HERE.

STORE NEWS: The “Riker?” Shirt will be available until Feb 20th and 5 other HE shirts are being retired (ALSO ON FEB 20th!!!) for the foreseeable future and are on sale now for $18.

The guy in the comic that isn’t me is my friend Daniel. He came over to watch Lost last night (and show that really should always be shared with friends so you can look up what the hell is going on in the episode from multiple web-enabled mobile phones in teams) and we had this exact conversation, though admittedly with less lyrical flow.

I am taking the “grandpa on the porch” perspective towards Google Buzz and saying, “I don’t know what it is. I don’t WANT to know what it is, and I made it this far without it so I know I don’t needs it!”

If you feel strongly about Google Buzz, feel free to try and convince me in the comments.

[Got a lot to do today so I’m posting the pencils for todays comic. I’ll ink and color later tonight. Check back for the finished product.]

In a move that can only spell the end of all things, CBS is turning some dude’s Twitter account into a sitcom. I’ve read @shitmydadsays and it’s genuinely funny, but it works because of how it’s presented. Short snippets of abusive wisdom culled from the word-vomit of a crotchety, doddering old man. Anything charming or humorous about @dadsshittysayings will certainly be lost in translation if it ever makes it to TV.

I’m not kidding when I say this news does not bode well for humanity. When twitter accounts become TV, how far away can “Status Update: Ben is washing his gym clothes – The Movie” be? Is that a man with the head of an oxe standing on a raft hewn from the bones of the stillborn in a river of liquid damnation? I think it is, and I think he’s just waiting for a few more Twitter-based TV shows before he unleashes his unholy army of winged goats.

In the end it will be called “That’s Our Dad,” and star pretty much everyone from “Everybody Loves Raymond” except for the titular Mr. Romano. See? Armageddon.

DALLAS WEBCOMICS EXPO IS THIS SATURDAY 11/14
Read up on it HERE, and come see me! I will be doing a couple of panels about webcomicing and I expect you to have your questions prepared on 3X5″ note cards.

MERCH UPDATES
I’ve explained that sketched books are taking longer than expected because I don’t want to give everyone the same rehashed 30 second character face, but I want you to see what to expect when you order an Artist Edition. Check out some of the recent book sketches HERE in my twitpic stream. I’ll be posting them all to Flickr when I’m done.

Are you interested in “I’m A Snowflake on The Wind” holiday cards? Are you interested in giant sized “Snowflake” comic prints? Those are likely the next two things to be added to the store in the next few days. Extol your interest in the comments.

UPDATE 9/19/09: Thanks to @Alyssa_Milano for sharing this comic with her Tweeps. If you dig the comic and would like to follow me on Twitter, please do.

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… or “The Fail Whale at Tanagra!”

[reddit-me]Ironically, Eli and Denise died in a murder/suicide pact moments before Twitter came back online.

So I guess Twitter got attacked by killbots or something yesterday morning. I was asleep until 10am (having stayed up working until 4am the previous night), so I didn’t notice. [Follow me on Twitter, if you want]

• Twitter silenced due to denial of service attack
• Serious Twitter Outage Ongoing
• US firm sues Twitter over patents
• How Did Hackers Cripple Twitter?
• Twitter, Facebook attack targeted one user

Read up on Darmok and the Tamaraians if panel one is confusing at all.

UPDATE ON THE BOOK PRESALE! As of this posting there are only about 10 Ultimate Fancy Editions left!

Seeing as how the Ultimate Fancies are all but sold out, I can officially announce that the preorders for the 150 UF editions have completely paid for the full print run of 1000 copies of HijiNKS Ensue Vol 1: Godspeed, You Fancy Bastard. Thank you all so much for your constant support.

Click the orange icon to go to the sign up page. I’ll be adding a sidebar widget later today with a link to the sign up page as well.

On to the aforementioned “Other Goodness”

• A quick reminder: if you aren’t already following me on Twitter, you probably should. It’s the best way to communicate with me through out the day other than email. I post most of my day to day stuff there as opposed to making full on blog posts.
• Jackson Ferrell from “This Week In Webcomics” did an awesome write up about HE and The Experiment.
• Fancy Bastard KravStorm is writing a play about HijiNKS Ensue. Or, rather a play starring the HE cast transposed into a sporting goods store. I believe this is officially the first HE fanfic. It hasn’t taken the turn into “slash” territory yet, but it’s also not finished...
• Fancy Bastard PatrickCentral showed off his geek projecting skills by making the “Problem Button” from Venture Brothers. Check out his other projects and despair at the geekitude.
  

I know that regardless of celebrity status, people are just people. They get sick, they get depressed, they go to the grocery store and they get their hair cut just like you and me. Despite understanding that, it’s still weird for me to see Wil Wheaton and Greg Grunberg from Heroes chatting live on the internet. There’s a voyeuristic quality to celebrity blogging/tweeting etc that I find simultaneously creepy and intriguing. I do think it helps to humanize celebrities when they share the phone pics they took of their coffee at Denny’s on TwitPic and such. Maybe if more celebs were open about the mundane details of their “day to days” we would stop obsessing over them. Or maybe it would encourage a dangerous new degree of stalkerism.

I read a few geek-celebrity blogs (JoCo, WWDN, Jackson Public) and follow plenty of marginally famous people on Twitter. I guess I like to see that we are going through the same stuff despite the gap in our social statuses, incomes, and legions of followers. Do any famous people read HE? I only know of 2 or 3 other well known cartoonists that do. No one else has ever come right out and said it. I wonder.

What celebrity Tweeters, Bloggers, etc do you follow and why?

Bonus Links:

• @WilW on Twitter
• @GregGrunber on Twitter
• @BreaGrant (Daphne from Heroes) on Twitter
• Greg Grunberg’s Pics on Twitpic (some cool Heroes cast shots in there)
• Other Fancy Bastards on Twitter

Speaking of Twitter, thanks to @SkawtNYC for unwittingly naming this comic.

Finnish FB, Jarmo, started an HE Facebook Group.

I’ve finally started uploading reader pics to Flickr.

I also posted some pics from one of our first HE Podcasts. Probably episode 4 or 5.

I’ll keep updating these as I get new pics, so send yours to comics(at)hijinksensue(dot)com.

I also wanted to remind you that if you use Twitter, you can follow me here.

And you can check out my video blogs, where I chronicle my attempts to make a living from this comic, here.

Lastly, looks like I’ll be working with FB Bill to set up a Fancy Bastard Forum. More on that as it develops.

(click for my Twitter page)

Have some links. They make you big and strong:

• Seeing the title of one of my comics in Italian is weird. Cloverfield, un mostro sessualmente aggressivo sounds sexy. (the site was down when I posted this)
• Reader HonestApe remixed the Cloverfield comic to illustrate my server woes after a front Page Digg, then made a face-humping gif.
• I agree with Randall. (update: So does Dear Leader)
• Tom-Kat can has cheezeburger? (thanks astranged_airman)

If you are reading this on Livejournal, I have some badish news. The WordPress plugin that I use to cross post to LJ (LJXP) doesn’t work well with the newest version of WordPress. As you may have noticed, it double posts all the time and I have to go in and manually delete the extras. It’s very frustrating and is ruining the LJ experience for me.

I really value everyone that discovered this site on LJ and all the great comments I get. I do not want to lose that. Until I figure out a better solution, please befriend the LJ Syndication Feed and comment HERE on the site (not the LJ feed, since I won’t be notified).  You can also add the plain old RSS feed to your feed reader of choice.

Don’t remove HijinksComic from your LJ friends, since I am going to try and find a better solution. LJ Readers, feel free to comment on this post on Livejournal and share any thoughts.

Comic Update:

I’m hoping to have a new comic up Friday and then make HijiNKS Ensue a twice weekly thing for a while.

You will notice at the bottom of each comic and blog post, there is now a “Share This” button. Using the excellent wordpress plugin of the same name, made by this nice man, you are now able to easily bookmark, digg and email HijiNKS Ensue Geek Comics to your friends the enemies.

Here’s what it looks like:

I’m finishing up the new comic right now and hope to have it up tomorrow morning. Keep the emails and comments coming. Join the email updates list by emailing me at comics at hijinksensue dawt comz and make sure to add the Geek Comic RRS feed to your RSS thing.

Spreading the social internets love, you can now friendilate HijiNKS Ensue on LiveJournal.

I know many of you readers are on this “living journal website” so I hope to see the HijiNKS inbox flooded with befriendification requests.