Hello and welcome to December! This month brings a few of my favorite things: my birthday (December 11) and… well… you get the idea. To celebrate, I’ve signed myself up to bake for the San Francisco Vegan Bakesale, which will take place on Saturday, December 5 and will benefit saveabunny.org. Apparently they still need volunteers, so if you live in the Bay Area and are feeling philanthropic, get in touch with the bakesale gang. If you are on the fence about attending, you may want to look at some cute pictures of bunnies to help you decide. (Just so no one gets upset, I feel I should clarify that I am not vegan, but I like to support my vegan brothers and sisters and also bunnies.)

If you happen to be on the east coast this weekend and therefore unable to attend the bakesale, perhaps you would be interested in the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival? My publisher, Secret Acres, will be in attendance with plenty of copies of PS Comics, as well as all their other hot inventory. I would go if I could. I implore you to do what I cannot.

Well, here we are. It’s October. Can you believe it was just September, and how soon it will be November? Gosh, and then just imagine what it will be like in November, when December will be coming down the pipeline and October will be old news…

It’s too mind-boggling, so instead let’s just focus on the present, or at least the coming weekend, which is the weekend of San Francisco’s Alternative Press Expo! I’ll be sharing a table with Damien Jay and Joey Sayers, and we’ll be right next to local favorite Susie Cagle. In addition to having my book for sale, I will have some new squirrely “thank you” cards. They’re also available through my etsy store:

And since I’m linking to all my stuffs, I may as well invite you to follow me on twitter. And, actually, you might want to make this vegan/vegetarian gravy too–I added about six sliced mushrooms, reduced the oil and flour to 1/3 cup, only used about 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, and shredded the onions, in case you were wondering. Now that I know how easy it is to have gravy in my life, I think I may just slop this shit on everything.

BTW, you wouldn’t believe how many spam comments I get that are pretty uplifting until I realize they are spam: “Thanks for doing this, I love it!” “Keep up the good work!” “Mind if I link to this?”

Well, oh well.

The San Francisco Zine Fest was last weekend, and I think it is officially my favorite show. It’s affordable, convenient, includes all my friends and none of my enemies, and just has that intangible feel-good vibe–you know what I’m talking about? If you went to Zine Fest, you probably do. If you did not, well, that is too too bad. There will be another one in about a year, so mark your calendars by shading in July and August 2010 with a pencil!

Pictured above are two dedicated Zine Fest organizers, François Vigneault and Jonas Madden-Connor. If you’re looking for some new reading material, I would recommend both their new minicomics with all my heart. It doesn’t look like they’re for sale yet, but keep your eyes on the Family Style catalog for François’s Bird Brain and Jonas’s Ochre Ellipse #3. You may as well get a bunch of their other comics while you’re there. Thanks to all the Zine Fest volunteers for such a fun weekend!

I made these scratch ‘n’ sniff trading cards a while ago to go with the press mailing for PS Comics. They’re called “affirmative essences,” and the idea here is that you can carry the cards around and pull them out whenever you’re feeling depressed and worthless. As you inhale the scent of grapes, apple, lemon or banana, you imbue yourself with the message on the card: “You are open to the spirit of life.” or “You have everything you need to be happy.” Unfortunately, I only have a few left, but if you place an order and let me know you’d like some trading cards, I’ve got four sets to spare.

In other news, the thoughtful and flattering reviews for PS Comics have been appearing from various respectable sources: Beyond Chron, The Factual Opinion, Optical Sloth and The Village Voice in case you missed it. I’ve also got an interview up over at the very entertaining and enlightening Vegansaurus blog–they were kind enough to take an interest in me even though I’m just a vegetarian and not a vegan. I’ve made the choice not to respond to the vegan aggressor’s comment (though I’ve come up with plenty in my head).

Yes, it is. Very much so, actually. However, iGoogle offers the unique benefit of a PS Comics theme! There are seven PS Comics themes that change throughout the day. If you pay attention, you will notice that there’s a complete (rewarding!) story in these themes. Here are a couple of sneak peeks, without all the google gear all over them:

If you think comics aren’t challenging enough, try making a comic with extremely wide “panels” where there’s a big obstruction in the middle, and words aren’t allowed, and each panel has to be visually appealing enough to stand on its own as well as work within a larger context, and, and, and…

While you’re checking your horoscope and local weather at the one-stop shop that is iGoogle, Damien Jay and I are headed to San Diego Comic-Con! I’ll be there for the second half of Friday and hopefully all of Saturday. Look for me–I’ll be the one with the starry eyes and the glimmering hope at the Sparkplug Comic Books table. Actually, I’m not even sure if I’ll have a badge for the whole time I’m there, so you might be better off looking for me by the pool at the Hilton Bayfront–I’ll be the one that’s all doughy and pale.

Also, there’s a fine review of PS Comics over at the Village Voice.

Damien Jay and I are going to be “cartoonists-in-residence” at the Charles M. Schulz Museum this Saturday, July 11. While we won’t actually be taking up residence, we will be drawing and hanging out there from 1:00 – 3:00 pm. I think “Peanuts” is the greatest, and you probably do, too. So if you don’t care for Damien and me, at least come to show your support for Charlie Brown!
(To be honest, my hair’s not back to brown yet, but hopefully it will be soon.) (Also, there’s an interview with me up on The Daily Crosshatch.)

Plus press photo of Joey and me (be sure to print it out and tack it up on your bulletin board):

If you are going to be in New York next week, please come celebrate the release of PS Comics and a whole bunch of other stuff! It will surely be a grand event, with beverages and art and I’m not sure but also possibly snacks. It doesn’t matter anyway, no one needs those extra calories. (poster by Juliacks)

Hello, World! Welcome to the new pscomics.com, which is far better and more relevant than the last pscomics.com, which is just a dark memory at this point.

Get ready to update your iCal, because there’s going to be a lot of P.S. Comics-related activity in the coming month:

June 5 – Book release party and show at Eyelevel BQE in Brooklyn with many honorable participants. Details still fuzzy.

June 6 & 7 – The book releases! I’ll be at the MoCCA festival in New York, with debuts of both P.S. Comics from Secret Acres and Papercutter #10 from Tugboat Press. I’m going to wear extra makeup that weekend! Gotta look good!

June 6 – Opening reception for the mega “Panelists V” show at Giant Robot New York. (show is up until July 8)

June 25 – West coast joint book release party with Joey Alison Sayers (Just So You Know) at Modern Times Bookstore in San Francisco. The event will include readings by us as well as Tessa Brunton, Ryan Germick, Hellen Jo, Jason Shiga and Calvin Wong.

Thank you for coming to my website! I welcome your positive feedback.