noparkingcomic

 I did a strip about a senator at a health care town hall on August 14th(www.bymagic.com/gopage.asp).  SInce then I have been emailed by folks saying they found out about my comic because people protesting at these town halls had printed out my comic and were handing it out.  From the emails I've determined that this has happened in a couple of different states.

On the one hand I'm happy people are reading my comic, but on the other I'm concerned that some unknow person or persons is printing the comic out at their home and handing out like a leaflet to passerbys.

Is this something I should be concerned with?  There's not much I can do about it, I don't know who this person or group is so I can't go and tell them to stop.  What do you guys think?

Another I-Con (http://www.iconsf.org) is now over, phew! This year the convention was staggered between three main locations, Suffolk Community College, The Islandia Marriot and The Holiday Inn Ronkonkoma. It was tiring going from one place to another for my panels, but it still was a fun convention over all.

Some of the highlights:

Friday-

Getting to see Bill Holbrook of ‘Kevin and Kel’ (http://www.kevinandkell.com/) talk about Walt Kelly’s Pogo.

My ‘Hollywood and Fandom’ panel that started at 11:30pm stretched to well after 2:00am. It morphed into a free for all discussion and it was more fun than a barrel of anthropomorphic monkeys.

Saturday-

Doing the ‘Welcome to Webcomics’ panel with Mookie from www.dominic-deegan.com and David Weir from http://www.cheshirecrossing.net. 

Finally getting to set foot in the dealer’s room after missing it Friday.

The Banquet, I always like being feed.

The Cabaret was a hoot! I M.C.ed the show and we had some great performances. Kristen Nelson, Devo Spice, Shoebox from Worm Quartet, Igor’s Egg, Flynn’s Folly, Dr. Setti, Power Salad and Sullen were wonderful. Marc Gunn closed the show, and this time his nose didn’t erupt into a crimson waterfall (if you were at last year’s Cabaret you’d understand). He’s such a great musician and it’s a pleasure to see him perform live.  

Sunday-

I got to do a panel with comic legends Larry Hama (G.I. Joe) and Bob Rozakis  (‘Mazing Man). 

Getting to see writer and First Fandom member David Kyle again. He’s 90 years old and this will probably be his last I-Con.

Meeting Ken Kelly (he only painted two of the biggest KISS album covers of all time). He autographed my copy of his book ‘Escape’. I was a happy nerdling.

All and all it was a good convention. Were there problems, yeah, but that happens at all conventions. Still, I love getting together with other nerds and geeks and enjoying our shared interests.   

Hello Everyone,

The new No Parking Web Comic strip about the Big Government Bail Out is up at:
www.bymagic.com

The Perma Link to email to your friends, family, or people you have it in for is:
www.bymagic.com/gopage2.html?comic=259

J.


 

This is the story of the May 7th comic for No Parking.  No, not the one that is up there now (LINK), the other May 7th comic.  Let me explain.

I had the comic for May 7th already done and lettered for Wednesday (I update at midnight three days a week, Mon, Wed, Fri).  It poked fun at the Clinton's and since I believed Hill was going to stay in the race by winning either one or both states (if she lost both she would be out) in Tuesday's primary, I figured a Clinton joke would still be topical come Wednesday morning.  Still, if something happened in the news that would be funnier I decided to stay up, just in case.  That's the joy of being a web comic artist, something can happen and you can have a cartoon about it up ten minutes later.  It can also be a curse. 

Indiana started coming in and Hill was ahead of Obama by a wide margin (like 30% at one point), securing her staying in the race.  North Carolina was going Obama's way, so it looked like it was going to be a draw for the night.   Then the Indiana numbers started to shift.  Obama started to pick up in Indiana, closing the gap.  A while later he was within 3 percentage points.  An article on Drudge Report said that the remaining districts were going heavily Obama.  I looked like Obama might win both states...

...making my comic out of date before it even got read by anyone.

For the comic to be funny Clinton had to be in the race.  I thrive on keeping my gags fresh and topical, and this one's expiration date was ticking away.  I could of put a strip up about buying war bonds to beat Hitler and it would be as timely as my Clinton comic.  I hated to say it, but I needed Clinton to win Indiana or I'd have to change my comic, and it was already 11:00pm.  As the minutes ticked by it started to look like Indiana wasn't going to call the election until morning, even though North Carolina was already in the books.  I bit the bullet, got a fresh sheet of paper and drew a new strip.  I couldn't risk Clinton losing and ruining my comic.

The May 7th comic that is up now was a gag I had planned for Friday.  I uploaded that strip a few minutes after midnight and climbed into bed.  Now he's the funny part.  Clinton did go on to win Indiana, so after all the fretting and rushing to get a new strip done, in the end it didn't matter.