Issue 4 news

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Issue Four is done and proofed and sitting in the hopper ready to go out to the printers. It’ll
probably go out in a week or so, after I get my check for #3 from Diamond. I’m tight enough on
cash right now that I’ll need the extra boost to get it printed.

Sadly, it doesn’t look like I’ll be making it out to The Small Press Expo like I’d hoped. I couldn’t get anyone to drive with me to
split the costs, and I couldn’t get a table because the 2001 show never happened, and everyone
with 2000 tables got one automatically this year. So…. I’m falling back and regrouping for
Mid-Ohio and Motor City, both this fall.

In other news, the reason why I’m so broke right now is because I bought an imaginary condo. It’s
not built yet, so it’s imaginary. I’m telling people that I’m going to have to come up with an
imaginary friend to imaginary housesit my imaginary condo.

It’s a CoHousing development, if anyone’s wondering. You can read more about CoHousing here, if you’re interested. CoHousing is the
radical idea of a planned community where people share things in common so that their individual
houses don’t have to be so big. They cluster their buildings close together to minimize the
impact on the environment, and have tons of amenities in the common house that individuals
couldn’t afford to have separately: A gym, a game room, spare bedrooms for guests, a big kitchen
and common area, home-schooling and play areas for kids, a big-screen TV. It’s a really super
idea and I can’t wait to move in. In the meantime, I get to help plan what the community will
look like, pick the name, and help choose the amenities our community will have. It’ll be a
interesting experience, to say the least.

Busted Store.

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My Online Store was broken, for who knows how long. Apologies to anyone who tried to order and
couldn’t; it should be fixed now.

It seems that Paypal made some sort of code switch in how they run their free shopping carts; it
was awful nice of them to let me know when their product stopped working.

Thanks to Diligent Vögelein fan Vicki for the heads-up that it was broken.

#4 is on the way, #5 almost done.

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Issue #4 is out being proofed by Jeff Berndt right now… it will go to press within the next 2-3
weeks, and will ship in September. #5 is in the final stages of being painted and is on track to
ship in November.

One of those days, part two.

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So it’s become my custom to bike out to my PO box whenever the weather’s good (lately it’s been
oppressively hot. Like “Under the thumb of the man” hot.) So this moning, I got out of the
house by noon, the weather was grand, and I was so very proud of myself for biking the five miles
there and five miles back. I picked up my fan mail (Thanks, guys!) and went home. When I got
back, I discovered that I’d left my keys at the Post Office. I couldn’t get in the house to get a
drink, I couldn’t drive the five miles to get them… because it was all my keys.

So I biked twenty miles today. Hooray for me.

Word From Neil Gaiman

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This quote is taken from Neil Gaiman’s Weblog. If you haven’t given the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund a couple of bucks by this point, do yourself and
them a favor and jet over to their site. At least buy a bumpersticker or something. These guys
are fighting for your civil rights, too.

“Well, I’m not going to write the essay, not at this time of night after five
hours of conference call. But I’ll quote from the District Attorney in Texas,
in his summing up to the jury who recently sentenced a comic store clerk to
prison for six months for selling an undercover cop a rude manga title. (The
DA’s explaining why the jury should ignore the expert witnesses who came in to
explain that the comic in question was adult comics, and art, and deserving of
first amendment protection):

“And, again, why are we here? This medium, the medium that this obscenity is
placed in is done so in an appealing manner to children. Comic books, and I
don’t care what type of evidence or what type of testimony is out there, use
your rationality, use your common sense. Comic books, traditionally what we
think of, are for kids. This is in a store directly across from an elementary
school and it is put in a medium, in a forum, to directly appeal to kids.”
Remember that one. Comics are only for kids. Doesn’t matter if the manga title
in question was sealed, marked for over 18s, and in the off-limits to kids
section of the store in question. Comics are for kids. The DA says so, and the
jury believed him.

And yes, we’re appealing it. And we’ve spent at least $40,000 on the case so
far (and managed to win the other case they brought at the same time).
So tell your friends who read comics, and who don’t. Tell your friends who only
read manga. Repost this where people will see it. Link to the Comic Book Legal
Defense Fund site at http://www.cbldf.org/index.shtml or straight to their
commercial site at http://www.cbldf.com (which is the place you can buy cool
stuff).”

Water breaks stuff.

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Y’ever have one of those days? Jane learned today about how water breaks stuff. I got to work
today to find that I’d overwatered my plant and had left a huge, stained ring on the oak
windowsill, even though I had a little plastic drainer for the pot to sit on. Then I got home and
found the repair guy – apparently my air conditioner was tipped wrong and had not only wrecked
some of the paint under my window, but had also dripped down through to the ceiling of the
guy below me. Siiigh. These are good things to know before I buy my own
house.

Review-o-Rama!

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WHEEE! I went out ego-surfing and found three new reviews
of Vögelein. Then, Randy and Don over at The Fourth Rail emailed to say that they’ve just completed a Two-In-One review. It’s
really wonderful and you should check it out.

Stickers? Stickers? Beuller?

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Any of y’all want some stickers? They’re free, you know. Send me a
SASE and get one for free, or 4 if you send me a dollar. They’re not small. They’re each bigger
than a business card.