blog: things you should check out

Here are some videos I’ve enjoyed in the last week or so! First, some short ones:

Batman Maybe (warning, spoilers for the latest Batman movie within)

Patrick Stewart, Olympic Ticket Scalper

And some longer ones — I like to leave them on in the background when I’m doing something tedious:

Tina Fey interviewed at Google (about an hour)

John Cleese on creativity (about 36 minutes, and a must watch)

BONUS LINK: Emma Coats relays 22 Rules of Phenomenal Storytelling she learned from working at Pixar (presented here in infographic form by PBJ Publishing). Linking it here so I can find it again when I need it, that is to say, every morning, whispering into the mirror, forever.

My wife showed me this video tonight, it’s adorable! Marcel the Shell with Shoes On:

Apparently I am the LAST PERSON ALIVE to see this video that already has 18 million views? That’s okay! That’s what I love about the internet, that something can blow up and get huge and go nuts, and there are still millions of people that can stumble across it and have that same thrill of discovery years later. The Venn diagram of “people’s interests on the internet” looks kind of like someone knocked over a shelf of washers in the hardware store. It’s a million little circles, some big and some small, some overlapping but mostly not!

There’s a second video too:

And holy cow there’s even a book! It is currently #11 on Amazon in the category Books > Children’s Books > Animals > Marine Life. It’s o-FISH-ally a hit!

ALSO: This weekend I will be at the Los Angeles Renegade Craft Fair!

I will be bringing some of my dwindling supply of hardcover Wondermark collections. Come check it out, it’s as if Etsy exploded in a park. Free to gawk, plus I’ll be doing Roll-a-Sketches!

Nothing will stop me from doing Roll-a-Sketches for the rest of my life unceasingly

Hard to believe that it’s Comic-Con season already! NEXT WEEK is when the nerds take over the city of San Diego. I’ll be with TopatoCo at booth 1229 — an easy booth to remember because we’re just on the other side of the aisle from booth 1-2-3-4. YOU KNOW THIS BY NOW.

If you won’t be in San Diego, but still want to read some good comics, my friend and yours Ryan Estrada has just launched something called The Whole Story. In his words:

I’m going to level with you — buying comics online can be a pain in the butt. Most of the services out there are geared toward what’s good for the middle man, not the customer. But luckily, I also make comics. And know a lot of others who do too.

So we spent most of the last year putting together an amazing collection of brand new books. And built a site to get them directly to you in the way that I would like to buy comics. Direct from the artists, at whatever price you think is fair, without having to register an account or download an app.

My dream is that if this takes off, I can start offering advances to awesome cartoonists so that they can focus on making the best comics they can. I can focus on making new graphic novels full time. And overall, the world will have a lot more great comics!

It’s like the Humble Indie Bundle for comics! And one of the comics he’s selling is called Fusion Future, a collaboration between Korean artist Nam Dong Yoon and a whole bevy of English-speaking cartoonists — including myself — who’ve “translated” his work (probably correctly). Check it all out at the-whole-story.com — the work that’s up now will only be available for a couple of weeks!

I want to see Ryan do well, not least because he is one of the authors in our upcoming Machine of Death 2 (out next summer). Another MOD2 contributor is artist Tony Cliff, whose comic Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant was just nominated for the Harvey Award this year.

I read Delilah Dirk when Tony submitted his portfolio for MOD2 and I fell in love with it! It’s a wonderful, swashbuckling adventure full of gorgeous art and fun action. (It’s the picture at the top of this post!) I recommend you go read the whole story right now for free at delilahdirk.com.

All that should keep you busy for a while

I’m heading off to Finland with my mom and some family! I’ll be gone about a week and a half. I think new comics will still post while I’m gone, but just in case something doesn’t work, don’t freak out, I’ll catch up when I get back.

I don’t know much about Finland! Do you have to bring your own fins or can you rent them there?

ANYWAY here are some links I’ve had in open tabs for a while:

“The Human Race” Kickstarter: This is an independent action/horror movie that looks really good! Also notable for starring, in the lead action-hero role, an actor with only one leg (and some other disabled actors in supporting roles). I dig the clips in the Kickstarter video, and I hope it gets finished!

“Old is the New New”: Neat article about creating distressed typography. “I get really excited when watching some obscure Italian thriller from the 30’s and I see a sign on a window or a poster on a wall that any self-respecting designer today would suffer mid-level carpal tunnel syndrome to have designed themselves.”

Titanium Physicists Podcast: A science podcast in which physicists explain concepts to ignorant but wisecracking laypeople. In this episode, the ignorant but wisecracking layperson is me, and I learn all about sunspots! Did you know that sunspots always appear in pairs? YOU WILL, when you listen to this podcast!

Futurism from 1910: Reader Michele forwarded me this collection of French postcards (as in the picture above) predicting what the world of the far-off, nearly incomprehensible future of the year 2000 would look like. I want to live in this postcard world so bad.

From Marksman Frank F. comes the link to this video. It appears to be an entry in a German contest, sponsored by Jameson whiskey, to re-tell a well-known movie in just 60 seconds. The creators of this (quite remarkable) entry used some familiar faces…!