Not the first time we’ve given Earth the bird. Got a lot of “Fuck You’s” to share with Mother Gaia I guess. Here’s a short list of reasons to be pissed at our home planet:

• Mondays
• Racial profiling
• Kale smoothies

Do I even need to give any other examples?

<3 Mike

“Drifting thing” –Polar Bear Club

• Work on the store is going slow, but well. Right now, my girlfriend is teaching me how to make inventory spreadsheets. Embarrassing that I couldn’t figure it out on my own (seriously I tried and made the most confusing and generally illegible thing) but she’s a business sorceress so we’re on the right track now. Also if you’re thinking it’s weird that one of the first things I did for the store was make spreadsheets, you’d be right, but you’d also be underestimating how much I like making spreadsheets.
• Watched Cabin in the Woods this weekend. Thought the first quarter was ultra-boring, but at the urging of Dana Danes, I muscled through for the promised awesome second half. It was worth it … I guess? Definitely some cool scenes and effects, but there’s a lot of garb you’ve gotta scarf for like 20 minutes of rad. If you think you’ve got the trash guts, it’s on Netflix streaming.
• Etrian Odyssey IV is a wonderful game, and if you have a 3DS and like your dungeons manly and hard, you need to give that one a long, loving play. (You can assume I mean this sexually or not, either way it’s right.)

<3 Mike

Happy Monday nerds. Got a new comic for you to get your May started right.

Had a question come through on Formspring (which I thought had closed down?) that I thought I would share:

Q: Which comic was the first appearance of Butt Dog? Also, is there any chance of any posters, prints, etc of Butt Dog appearing somewhere anytime? moar Butt Dog. please?

A: The first appearance of Butt Dog was here: http://www.leadpaintcomics.com/2011/11/14/denny. Is there a chance for Butt Dog prints or posters? Sure! We don’t have anything concrete planned as of now, but I could definitely see some showing up in the near future. As for more Butt Dog in general, I’m not currently writing anything with him in it, but I’m sure he’ll appear again sooner or later.

For anyone else wondering about a store in general, I’m still a few weeks out before starting work on one. I’ve got one or two blocks of scripts I need to finish, but after that, I should be able to set one up. Having never built a web store before, I’m not sure how long it’ll take or how many critical precursor steps I’m forgetting about as I write this (“register our business, know how mail works,” etc.) but I’ll be starting on it soon all the same.

I appreciate everyone’s interest in a store and merch tons. It’s extremely uplifting, sometimes giving me a reason to literally get up off my bedroom floor and continue making comics.

<3 Mike

“Arsenic” –The Loved Ones

Blamo! New comic up ins!

Hope everyone had a nice weekend! Was a busy one for me, working on all kinds of big cool things that will be crazy with if they work out. (As is the way of all big cool things I suppose.) I was able to catch this weekend’s UFC though. All I have to say is that Roy Nelson is ridiculous and I wish I had his hair.

<3 Mike

“Coffee Spoon” –Cold War Kids

Couple other things:

• Definitely a comic next Monday
• Just finished reading Updike’s “Rabbit is Rich.” Great book, but exceptionally depressing. (500+ pages of a family lying and lashing out at each other, etc.) Last 60 or so pages are highly redemptive however, so overall I liked it I guess. Think I’m done with depressing books for a while though. (Besides being general bummers, they make terrible “morning-on-the-train” reading.)
• Fellow comic peeps: If you’d don’t watch the somewhat poorly named show “Strip Search,” a reality webseries about aspiring cartoonists, you should catch last Friday’s episode. (Episode #15: “The Merch.”) The episode’s competition is about who can best set up a convention table, and there were some cool insights (I thought) handed out by the judges here and there. You don’t have to watch the whole episode, though it does give some decent context. Starting at the 12:00 minute mark will place you right at the table review section.
• Spent a portion of my night tonight exercising on a elliptical machine at the gym, listening to Taylor Swift and thinking about my ideal, second-string X-men team (to rescue my first-string team, because they’ve been captured.) Just a little insight into how I spend my Sundays!

<3 Mike

I’m looking to finally set up a webstore for Lead Paint (yay!) but it’s been like three years since I’ve don any research on the subject. (Boo!) I’ve no idea what’s good these days, or even what people are using. Is Big Cartel still a thing? Etsy? Uncle Whiskey’s e-store and fiddle emporium?

Any help or suggestions would be very much appreciated.

Thanks and <3 <3 <3,

Mike

I spent a decent chunk of time this week trying to write about how much MOCCA this year meant to me. I wanted to say something profound and artful about the show, about how it going so well probably changed my life and gave me a surge of confidence when I really, really needed it. But all I could come up with was rambling, too-personal, and generally overcomplicated garbage (as is my way on occasion), so we’re going to take the simpler route here instead.

We had an insane amount of people come out to our table. Thank you to the long-time fans and readers who came out. Your support and appreciation of our work is one of life’s most precious gifts, and I will try and hold it in my heart for as long as I can, to shield me on my bad days and embolden me on the good. Thank you to the brand-new readers who stopped by our table, laughed, and decided to take a chance on the rest of our work. It’s insanely validating to watch someone enjoy your work for the first time, and I hope you’ll enjoy the rest of our it as much as your first glance. Finally, thank you to all the other creators who stopped by to say hi. It’s a great joy to meet online friends in the real world, and I’m truly flattered and humbled that anyone thinks I’m worth talking to at all in the first place.

This year’s MOCCA meant more to me  than most will know, so thanks again everyone for making my life so much better.

<3 Mike

P.S.: Sorry to everyone who got books or prints signed with my totally shit signature. As Dana and long-time readers can tell you, I’ve not matured emotionally past the first grade, which is why, among many other emotional and developmental problems, every time I pick up a pen it’s basically a mental/fine-motor skill wrestling match to make even the faintest, crudely legible scrawl that can pass for an Earth human’s name, let alone my own.

Thank you dearly to everyone who came out to say hi and maybe buy something. The fans (so many of you this year! And you were all so kind and polite and fun! We are so very, very lucky!), the fellow creators (making new friends and meeting old ones face-to-face for the first time is two different, but equally valid, ways to say “the best thing”), and the dark cabal of wizards lulling me to sleep with promises of even greater and less-deserved glory: You were all wonderful and amazing and vital, I am having difficulty expressing it in my current tired, shitted-up-with-joy state.

I will write clearer and better thank-yous and nice-time words later in the week. Thank you everyone for being the best.

<3 Mike

I’ll be honest, If I’m able to leave behind a paragraph as beautiful and weirdly life-affirming as the first one of that review, I would die a happy and proud man. Thanks for the laughs and the smarts Ebert, you’ll be missed.

<3 Mike

Murder: The comedy well that keeps on giving.

IMPORTANT NEWS:

MOCCA Fest is this weekend! Our table is E160. Come see us! Use this snazzy map if you have to!

Hope to see some of you there!

<3 Mike

“Pirates” –Jenny Owens Youngs