On Saturday, March 27, I’ll be in Buffalo for the 3rd Annual Small Press Book Fair! It will take place at the Karpeles Manuscript Library Muesum and promises to be full of bookmakers, poets, authors, and artists. Just one week earlier I’ll be close to home at the Boston Zine Fair, and Buffalo is another city I have strong ties to. I went to college there and met my wife, a native Buffalonian, shortly after. This city has a lively arts scene hidden beneath all the ice and snow and I expect it to be an exciting event. 

 Admission is free and the fair runs from noon to 6pm. There will be workshops that day and readings the night prior; the schedule will probably be finalized soon. Hope to see some of you there!

It’s been a while since we last spoke! Meanwhile, Herman the Manatee Fails Again, the second collection of Herman comics, was reviewed at Midnight Fiction. The third volume will be put together within the next couple of months. It’s about prison!

I’m going to be at the Boston Zine Fair on March 20 at the Cambridge YMCA. Doors open at 11, and then it quickly becomes part of Blastfest 2010, a music festival run by Whitehaus. If you live in the Boston area, stop by! There will be zines and music and you can probably go swimming!

Thanks for the emails, tweets, and comments about the 100th strip; I hadn’t initally planned on this strip lasting over two years… or even over two months… and I am relieved that I have not yet fallen on my face. A few months ago, a small student film crew came to my house and made a short film about this comic, and I will try to get it on the web soon. I don’t injure myself in this version.

Some brief news: The two Herman minicomics were reviewed together at High-Low…. Also! Somehow I got nominated for the “Best Indy Artist” Fanboy award – how this happened, I don’t know. I am among much more talented and established folk.  But thank you to the Fanboys who snuck me in.

I’ve compiled a second collection of Herman strips for a new minicomic, titled Herman the Manatee Fails Again! For those of you who did not attend SPX (and for those that did but were frightened away by my imposing personality), it is now available in my store! It is among other fine books which you are bound to love. If there is room on your minicomic bookshelf for cute and depressing things, be sure to add this to your collection.

I’m going to be at SPX next weekend at Table B5. If you stop by, you may be the first on your block to get your hands on the new Herman minicomic! And the second collection has even newer strips than the first one! Both volumes will be available, plus Shrinky Dinks, plus an assortment of other quality comics. And me - I will be available to smile shyly and make awkward conversation. It is a remarkable opportunity that only comes about once a year (in Maryland).

I’m always genuinely thrilled by the people I get to meet at these conventions and I’m sure SPX will be no exception; I look forward to meeting you!

Sunward, my recently awesome minicomic that you should consider reading, was reviewed at Midnight Fiction! I really should have mentioned this forever ago and will understand if you have difficulty forgiving my delay. Really, it’s ok - if I were you I would be FURIOUS. But if I were you, I would not be me and whoever would be me probably would be more responsible about these things.

I drew a guest strip for KinokoFry that you should definitely go and read! I wouldn’t lie to you. Rebecca Clements, who remains one of my favorite webcartoonists, has some really kind words to say about my comics as well.

Also, my minicomic Sunward received a thoughtful review by Rob Clough at High-Low.

Do you love manatees? I mean, do you really really LOVE MANATEES? So much that you would be willing to read a webcomic every week, even though it is incredibly depressing, because it is the only manatee comic strip in town? OK, so maybe you don’t love manatees but you are just a fan of misery. That’s fair. It makes sense that the only readers I hear from are those who love manatees because the folks who just loooooove misery are probably not moved to email strangers or talk to them at conventions. For the record, I love all of you, wherever your allegience lies.

For the manatee lovers, I thought I’d to point you to an organization that makes a much stronger effort than I do trying to save manatees from extinction. The Save the Manatee Club was founded by fellow manatee lovers Bob Graham and Jimmy Buffett and you can read about their efforts on their website, in addition to following manatee news, buying manatee merch, volunteering, and donating. If you donate $25 you can adopt a manatee. At first I thought you are adopting the idea of a manatee but no, they have a list of real manatees you can sponsor (including the one who swam to Rhode Island last year). So check it out:

Herman the Manatee is now on Facebook! OK, so Herman has been on Facebook for a while now, but only in the form of a Group. And who really joins Groups anymore? Now there is a shiny Facebook Page that is desperate for your fandom. Become a fan! On their newsfeeds, all of your friends and those people you knew in high school but don’t really talk to anymore will see you are a fan of HERMAN THE MANATEE! It will be so cool.

Speaking of social networking, I am on Twitter. That is kind of old news, but there it is. I try to update the blog on this site with just news related to my comics, so if you want to read about other goings-on or what movie I saw or dinner I burned or whatever, Twitter is where all of this happens.

I recently finished a minicomic called Sunward, which is now available for $4 in my newly localized and retooled store! Sunward is about a guy named Rhino Dave who finds himself in an unfortunate gravitational position. It’s drawn in a similar style to Herman and the story captures the same claustrophobia and anxiety, but the characters are less out of a children’s cartoon and more from a strange adolescent dream. You can read the first four pages on my LiveJournal.