Visit me at this year's San Diego Comic-con!

I hope you all enjoyed Rikk's week of Skull Panda fill-ins. Next week, Sam and Fuzzy returns with the start of a brand new storyline!

Meanwhile, I'm packing my bags and shipping off to San Diego to attend Comic-con International. Why don't you come, too? As always, I am eager to meet new folks and draw some sketches!

In addition to being the largest comic convention in North America, Comic-con is possibly the largest gathering of webcartoonists on the face of the earth. And this year, there will be more of us there than ever!


Click here for full map

I will be firmly stationed at the Dayfree Press booth, alongside my friends from Questionable Content, Girly, Dr McNinja, Patches, Little Gamers, and White Ninja. And as you can see, our booth itself is located right in the thick of an even larger smattering of webcomics authors. There are even more of us scattered throughout the convention centre... just click here to see the full map. You are almost guaranteed to meet the author of at least one of your other online favourites.

Swag As in the past, I will be heavily armed with a wide selection of my books and t-shirts. But this year, I will also be bringing along a brand new item: a fancy™ art print based on the recent Memory Lapse storyline. Each of the 100 copies of this limited run item are signed and numbered by myself, and ready to grace the walls of your living room, bedroom, or baby's nursery (not recommended). I will sell any remaining copies online when I get back, but convention attendees will have a chance to get first dibs! For more information about how to attend the convention, visit the Official Comic-con website. See you there!

Good Company

Rikk's Skull Panda guest week continues with today's depraved installment. The grande finale runs on Friday!

In other news, it appears I've joined the ranks of Nintendo and Ubisoft in accidentally offending some UK residents with my use of the word spaz.

North Americans, you may be surprised to know that in the UK, the word "spaz" is used almost exclusively as a derogatory term for people who have cerebral palsy or other forms of spastic paralysis. And UK residents, you may be surprised to learn that in North America, the word "spaz" is used almost exclusively as a general, inoffensive term for people who are clumsy or over-excited. The word is so innocuous it is even frequently used in children's programming.

How does something like this happen? This article provides a pretty interesting account of the term's gradual divorce from it's medical roots... within North America, at least. Personally, I'd never even heard of someone using spaz as a negative term for a person with a physical disability. Most people over here -- at least people my age -- are in the same boat, simply because the word hasn't been used that way in such a long time.

Isn't that fascinating? I know I thought so! I guess I'll just place "spaz" alongside "fanny" and "fag" in my list of words that mean extremely different things over here than they do over there. Yikes! Thanks to my UK readers for (hopefully) giving me the benefit of the doubt and assuming no offense was intended.

Sam Logan

Skull Panda

Today's Skull Panda comic is the first of three from everyone's favourite alternative cartoonist, Rikk Estoban.

For those of you unfamiliar with Rikk's work, feel free to check out these two past Skull Panda shindigs. As for Rikk himself, a fictionalized (but highly accurate, in my opinion) representation of his persona appeared in an ancient Sam and Fuzzy storyline that you can read either online or in the first Sam and Fuzzy book. The book also comes with a few exclusive bonus Skull Panda strips, as does the follow-up Noosehead volume.

As for me, I'm busy working on the next Sam and Fuzzy story, as well as a couple of other goodies. In the meantime, tune in on Wednesday for the next in Rikk's trio of contributions!

Sam Logan