I'm doing this mini-convention at the Cartoon Art Museum on Saturday, December 12. If you're in the Bay Area, check it out. It's got WEBCOMICS.

With the holiday season happening and all, why not consider gift shopping at the Couscous Collective Store? Not only can you purchase Narbonic and Skin Horse collections (and if you order all six volumes of Narbonic together, I'll sign and sketch in each one), but the store includes a wide selection of comics and minicomics by the other members in good standing of the Couscous Collective. Some of my personal recommendations:

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A week and a half ago, our computer, P.B., crashed. P.B. is a seven-year-old desktop Mac, one of the white gooseneck models. I usually call him Plastic Baby, but his formal name for company is Pangur Bán, Irish for "White Pangur." It's the title of a medieval poem written by an Irish monk to his cat some 1,200 years ago. (Wikipedia says that pangur means "waulker," but I've also come across the theory that "Pangur" was an Irish pronunciation of "Peter." Either way, it was apparently a common cat name.) When I first read the poem as a college student at Trinity, I was struck by its sweet simplicity. The last verse opens a little slit in time to that monk, hunched over an illuminated Gospel, patiently nursing his tiny light against the darkness. With his white cat by his side.

I'd like to say it's even better in the original Irish, but I've forgotten how to do anything in Irish beyond count to ten, and now I can't pronounce the original verses without getting my tongue caught in my larynx.

P.B. came back from the Powerbook Guy this afternoon, brand-new hard drive, data fully restored. Here's the poem for him.


Pangur Bán

I and Pangur Bán my cat,
Tis a like task we are at:
Hunting mice is his delight,
Hunting words I sit all night.

Better far than praise of men
Tis to sit with book and pen;
Pangur bears me no ill will,
He too plies his simple skill.

Tis a merry thing to see
At our tasks how glad are we,
When at home we sit and find
Entertainment to our mind.

Oftentimes a mouse will stray
In the hero Pangur's way;
Oftentimes my keen thought set
Takes a meaning in its net.

'Gainst the wall he sets his eye
Full and fierce and sharp and sly;
'Gainst the wall of knowledge I
All my little wisdom try.

When a mouse darts from its den
O how glad is Pangur then!
O what gladness do I prove
When I solve the doubts I love!

So in peace our tasks we ply,
Pangur Bán, my cat, and I;
In our arts we find our bliss,
I have mine and he has his.

Practice every day has made
Pangur perfect in his trade;
I get wisdom day and night
Turning darkness into light.

And lives in the Bay Area?

From the Cartoon Art Museum:

Monsters of Webcomics: Webcomic-Con 2009

Cartoon Art Museum event: Saturday, December 12, 2009, 11:00am-5:00pm,

Free with paid admission to the Cartoon Art Museum

The Cartoon Art Museum is proud to host Webcomic-Con 2009, a single-day mini-convention dedicated to online comics and their creators. Visitors will have the opportunity to meet local webcartoonists and talk with them about their work. The featured artists will sell and sign copies of their comics, draw sketches for patrons, and conduct writing and drawing workshops throughout the day.

Featured guests include Brian Andersen (So Super Duper, Reignbow & Dee-Va, http://www.sosuperduper.com), Leigh Dragoon (By The Wayside, The Faerie Path Manga, http://www.leighdragoon.com), Shaenon K. Garrity (Skin Horse, Narbonic, http://www.shaenon.com), Victor Hao (King of RPGs, http://www.kingofrpgs.com), Karen Luk (Raconteur, http://www.karenluk.net, http://www.girlamatic.com/raconteur/, Betsy Streeter (Brainwaves, http://www.betsystreeter.com) and Chuck Whelon (artist and co-writer of Pewfell, http://www.pewfell.com).

NOTE FOR WEBCARTOONISTS: If you are interested in participating in this event, please contact Andrew Farago at gallery@cartoonart.org for more details.

A new Skin Horse storyline, "Tin Soldier," starts today! After the intimidatingly long Alaska arc that just ended, this is a good jumping-on point for new readers. I promise romantic angst out the wazoo. Also robots.

To those of you who responded to my last post with regret that street D&D could never happen in their neck of the woods: Don't be so sure! The Street Master can throw down the twelve-sided die anytime, anywhere. He has plans. Plans that will probably get him arrested.

After a hiatus, Toby Craig's ongoing graphic novel Punish the Dead has returned to Modern Tales. New pages will appear three days a week, Monday/Wednesday/Friday. Don't miss it!

Jeffrey Wells, my cowriter on Skin Horse, will be at Geek.Kon in Madison, Wisconsin this weekend, doing a panel on writing webcomics. If you're in the area, stop by, see Jeff's panel, and wish him a belated happy birthday (oh, yeah, his birthday is today).