David Malki ! 
To accompany the Emergency Survival Kit t-shirt, based on this knitting comic, I’m pleased to present this sturdy canvas messenger bag! We looked through a ton of bags before settling on this one — I think you’ll love it. It’s strong, roomy, rugged and great-looking, and it’ll fit all your junk permanently. Available now at TopatoCo!
It’s been a few years since I last mentioned this stuff, so I’m gonna share it again for the benefit of new readers! Back when my wife and I were first engaged, we were both working in movie advertising. So naturally, after setting a date, the first thing we did was make a poster (above, click for bigger).
Then, we made a trailer:
(if you don’t have Flash, here are lo-res and hi-res QuickTime versions)
And being action-movie fans, we decided we needed an action-movie cake:
It was designed by me and created by Mike’s Amazing Cakes in Redmond, WA. Click the image for a closer look!
If you have further sinister curiosity about our wedding itself you can always look at some of our vaguely interesting pictures as well. But the main thing is the cake — I’ve seen it linked around the internet anonymously before, and I want to make sure it’s got an attribution attached to it.
By the way each tier was a different flavor
I’ve been traveling this week! I was in Portland, then I was in Western Massachusetts inside the sinister obelisk that is TopatoCo World Headquarters, and now I’m in Boston. I am a California boy, and I am freezing here.
I have this feeling like I’ll look back at this point in my life and think, “Wow, I sure used to travel a lot.” I read about authors and musicians and athletes and other people who tour a lot, who have to stay in a lot of crappy hotels and ride on buses and fly coach and how they eventually get fed up with the hardship and the physical toll it takes on the body and just decide to start staying home. I hope that doesn’t happen to me; I hope our travel infrastructure makes improvements in comfort at at least the same rate that I get more decrepit and intolerant of the inconvenience.
And I cannot wait for the day when people in white coats come into my room at night, drug me and put me into a tube, and I wake up completely refreshed in New York a day later. If they will do that for me, I will even let them take embarrassing pictures of me while I am knocked out. I do not even care. I want it that bad.
I hope I get to keep traveling, because I love going to shows and events and meeting people and selling books and laughing and having a great time. I even love days like today, sitting in a café or hotel room with my laptop, connected to the world and putting in a satisfying full day’s work that I got to design.
I’m really excited about what’s happening at TopatoCo, and I’ve never been more sure that I made a smart move retiring from my “real” job at the beginning of this year. I’ve been self-employed for several years, taking odd freelance jobs here and there (usually editing movie trailers), but back in the spring I said “I don’t got time for this noise no more” and since then I’ve never looked back.
I get to develop comics and books and posters and cool stuff for myself, and I’ve also been working very closely with TopatoCo handling promotions and helping design books and other products for other artists. Today we launched a store for one of my favorite podcasters and a remarkable internet person in his own right, Jesse Thorn.
I’ve always been adamant that there’s no real difference between “webcomics” and “cool things on the internet in general”, and maybe the fact that I’m kind of an outlier in the “comics” world per se has helped me develop that perspective in a different way than some of my friends and colleagues who’ve got cartooning deep in their blood.
I forsee a future where a business model that we’ve sort of hammered out for webcomics can help bloggers, musicians, podcasters, writers, comedians etc. all develop sustainable careers by doing ridiculous things with computers.
CHARLES BABBAGE LOOK WHAT YOU DID
This weekend, I’ll be in Portland, OR for the Wordstock book festival. I’ll be in the exhibitor hall in the comics section, which I hear is a thing? I haven’t seen a map, so it’s hard to say. The future is a bit misty; I may be crouching on the floor. I am fairly tall, so hopefully I will be hard to miss.
I’ll be bringing mainly books! To a book fair! What are the odds. Also, Fiction Generator posters and probably some manly stares, as it is Portland after all. Any of these could become yours with a minimum of effort. Hope to see you there!
Here are some more examples of the sketches I put in Artist Edition books! Each sketch is unique and totally unpredictable.
This is a reminder that these special edition books are currently available through October 11 only, and that the opportunity will not be offered again until next spring. UPDATE: They’re done! Thanks to all who ordered. Next chance will be in April or so.
Will yours look as dapper as these (or any of these older ones)? It is impossible to say yet exciting to imagine. The books — individually or in a discounted combination pack — are available here.