Lately, I’ve been thinking that while I’m in my own comic making slump I could help some of my friends who are enthusiastically starting their own projects by going over the history of Harmless Free Radicals and sharing what I’ve learned from my work. Well, Eric, who is a fantastic cartoonist, is doing something really similar only using his favorite how-to books.

He’s still at the planning stages, and it looks like he’s trying to make it more of a community thing than a single artist driven blog series. So, if you’re interested in working along with him, you should pipe up right now.

I’d love to see any of you down there.

As unofficial head founder of the group, it is sort of up to me to pass on ideas that other members have put forward. And as I have been shouldering the brunt of organizing what little we actually do for the past several years, I am ready for some of the ideas that I’ve been hearing in the past couple of months.

Mostly, we’ve been talking about becoming more organized and maybe going in on a shared studio/gallery space so that we could have some sort of a group show every gallery walk!

But I’ve always striven to emphasize the egalitarian and anarchic nature of the B.S. and even if we’re going to become less anarchic, you deserve to give the rest of the group your input.

What would you like the Bellingham School of Comics to do for you? What would you like to get out of being part of the group?

If you’re already getting what you want out of the group, you should definitely let us know what that is, too. It’s always good to know what you’re getting right!

You can either comment here, or you can use a personal message to me. I’ll keep all personal messages anonymous and/or confidential to the other members, in case you want to remain politic for an reason.

Never the less, I’m not going to expect to see anyone down at the Drop tonight, and I’m not going to promise to be there. But there’s a good chance I’ll make it anyway! (edit: In fact, I don’t see as how I won’t be there, as I now have an interview at 2:30 today and will need to wind down afterward)

My only obstacle is lack of bus fair, really.

If there’s anything you really wanted to discuss tonight and no one showed up (or you can’t make it), you can always put it here.

I have recently had several people ask me what time the group meets on Saturdays. The official meeting time is 2pm, but some people have been showing up at noon.

Please comment here (on the B.S. website) with what times you like to show up on Saturdays. Thanks!

Optimum Wound’s submission guidelines for every comic and manga publisher in the Universe

The awesome Jason Thibault has posted to his blog 12 Great Videos on Inking Comics.

I love videos like these.

Reply to this if you have any finished goods you’d like me to push on unsuspecting ‘Hamsters!

As it is, I hope to have books, posters, greeting cards, calendars (crossing fingers on this one) and some music CDs.

Comic Book Downloads Drive eBook Market in Japan

“The eBook market generally is exploding in Japan, with $464 million in sales in 2008, a 131 percent growth over the previous year. The overwhelming portion — 86 percent — are read on cellphones, as opposed to computers or specific eReader platforms. (The Kindle is not available in Japanese.)”

It just so happens that the official time for the Down Town Trick-or-Treat event is from 2pm to 5pm.

This would be an opportune time to sit and draw passers-by!

I’m trying to get my stuff together to be down there. Maybe I’ll see you there.