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 am totally doing it, and you should do it, too. Here’s the “signup” link, even though it’s really informal. You can e-mail or PM Denman and ask to be in it; your “application” should include a website, a gallery, or wherever you keep a few examples of your art and/or your wit.

It’s a good way to drive traffic to your webcomics, for those of you that have them, and it’s also a good way to let me pwnz your ass. Even if you don’t make it into the first season, you can still do one-on-one battles with your friends on the forums, or with strangers, and that’s pretty fun. And even if you don’t want to participate, I still encourage you to watch.

As far as the future of the con, well that depends. The current convention committee figures they’ve taken this as far as they can. What this thing needs is new blood. If you feel the Bellingham area should have it’s own convention for science fiction/fantasy/comics/gaming/general geek culture, run by fans for fans and you’d like to help make that happen, come to the party and let us know. Otherwise, come to the party and just have fun:)

Anyone who’s interested in the future of fan conventions in Bellingham and can’t make it to the party can also email me (this is Phillip’s wife Cynthia again, btw.) A new con could keep the name Valhallacon, go back to VikingCon, or have an entirely new name. What it would be called and what form it would take would be up to the people planning it. It would inherit some seed money and other resources. It’s my feeling that it should be inclusive and reflect different aspects of Bellingham and of geek culture, with family friendly offerings and more mature programming in the evenings. And art should definitely play a big part of it.

This year we’re adding an art show. Since this is a general fannish con don’t think it has to be sci-fi art. Comics fit the bill nicely. It’s $10.00 per 4×4 panel to hang originals and framed and/or matted prints, with the con taking a 10% commission on sales.  There’ll also be a ‘print shop’ table for other prints, cards, bookmarks, what have you. There’s no charge to have your stuff in the print shop; the commission is 15%.  

We can also make arrangements for table displays for jewelry, crafts, sculpture, etc.

The con is also looking for programming. It would be great to get some artists for panels and demos. We’re also working to include a variety of local groups.When Phillip and I lived in Phoenix we’d attend meetings of the Association of SF/F Artists at cons.  Maybe the BS could have a meeting/drawing session?

Please feel free to contact me at alternaterealityarts@hotmail.com or call 360-510-5128.

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.

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.)”