You might know that for the last few months I’ve been hard at work on a big article for a big-ish publisher. This week I found out how much that publisher is going to be paying me… So, to make a long story short, I’m selling originals! All the pages from my minicomics are up for grabs (though some are less Photoshopped than others), as are the Israel diary comics originals (two to a page, or I can cut them down). Or if anyone wanted to commission something, I’d be more than happy to do that too. Get in touch for pricing, but I assure you that I’m pretty cheap. I’ll be posting a full list of pages available and prices soon on the Storefront page.

Also of note: Nine Gallons is temporarily sold out. Though I said I wouldn’t, I’m going to do a second run within the next couple weeks. These ones will still cost $5, but I’ll be painting each cover by hand. Yes, this is totally insane, but I can’t really afford to do another run with the color covers and I don’t want to just go black and white, so there you have it. You can still order them now and I’ll send them out as soon as I’ve got ‘em. If you just can’t wait, I think Microcosm still has a few of the old ones available. (And hey, while you’re over there, feel free to leave a nice comment about me! Or a mean one, whatever, measure it in inches and all that.)

Last three diary comics, plus a few deleted scenes are coming up within the next few days.

Doree Shafrir wrote an interesting take on discrepancies between male and female wages over at Jezebel. She takes into consideration a lot of the outside factors often ignored in the 77-cents-on-the-dollar figure that’s normally thrown around in this debate, normalizing for different career choices and the like — though it turns out “there’s still a five percent wage gap for male and female college graduates, even after controlling for things like age, race and ethnicity, region, marital status, children, occupation, industry, and hours worked, according to testimony given in April to the United States Joint Economic Committee.”

Doree concludes that this is because women are less likely than men to negotiate their salaries, and I think she’s right to a certain degree. I know I was really freaked out by the prospect at first, and I’ve always been more willing and perhaps able to negotiate in jobs that I didn’t want as much as the ones I did.

But the thing is, I think Doree is ignoring the sociology behind negotiations. This argument presumes that women would be able to win those arguments were they even to bring it up; given she led with Peggy Olsen from Mad Men being snubbed when asking for a raise, this seems pretty funny to me. Women are not rewarded for being aggressive or going after what they want, and I’ve certainly gotten a toned-down Don Drapering myself sometimes when asking to be paid a fair wage for my work. I think it’s important  to encourage women to negotiate, but it’s unfair to put all the blame on them for not asking when there’s still the matter of someone — usually a man — with the real power.

Then again, more men have hired me than women, so fuck if I know what’s going on here, but it probably has something to do with my breasts.

For the person who found this blog by searching “don’t understand the ape temporary seller’s permit thing” — it’s really easy, but sort of a pain. To sell anything in California, you have to have a permit and pay the state an exorbitant rate of sales tax on everything you sell (that you report). You can apply and receive the permit in person at any Board of Equalization office in the state, or send away for it in the mail. Then you have several weeks to pay the tax to the state.

Which reminds me that I owe mine from Zine Fest… Gotta keep those coffers full for the fat cats!

I wrote up my thoughts on the SF Zine Fest for the Daily Cross Hatch, an internet repository of indie comics news and reviews. Feel free to disagree with me if you think it’s a good and logical idea to pay $400 for a table at a convention where you’ll likely not even make that money back in sales — I’d love to hear your reasoning! (And if it’s “networking,” please show your work on the page next to your answer.)

Also, look forward to a neat series of interviews with cartoonists whose talent to press ratio is far higher than a lot of the cartoonists you read about.

First, an apology: turns out I’m about as good with this Website as I am with my personal life. I’m currently in the midst of moving, but when I’m finished I’ll have loads of new stuff up here that doesn’t require me understanding anything about Cascading Code (i.e. new comics and paintings).

For now, though: a recent Google search that resulted in some time spent on this very blog reminded me of the terrifying prescience of Nathan Barley. Twitter doesn’t acknowledge NB as the inspiration behind their name, and maybe I’m giving a little too much credit here taste-wise, but it seems obvious to me. Then again, teens don’t tweet so perhaps it’s just some fun with the synchronicity of the collective unconscious. Either way, if you’re not familiar, let me bring you up to speed.

I suggest clicking through to the similar videos, especially if you think Vice Magazine is fucking absurd, and also if you enjoy tiny hats. Well fucking Jackson.

Previously: thinking is rubbish and rubbish isn’t cool

a very washed-out scan of an ink and gouache sketch drawn for the Cartoon Art Museum fundraiser

I think that image about sums it up! Meanwhile I’ve been working to get some new comics in the can and finally redesign this site. Expect big changes come Monday/Tuesday, and I guess some comics that play into my own narcissistic shame and your voyeuristic tendencies and pre-disposed expectations of autobio comics storytelling. I think I’ll call this “the vulnerability index.” Maybe I will draw about my new haircut you guys!!

So until then, thank you for your patience, eight daily readers — I really appreciate it. In the meantime you can always buy a copy of the first chapter of my new book Nine Gallons; only seven of its 32 juicy pages are available online.

This Old Gray Lady piece on bias against female playwrights presents some interesting facts — not least of which is this one that touches on a theme I’ve been batting around since high school. Namely, that girls are huge bitches to other girls.

Ms. Sands sent identical scripts to artistic directors and literary managers around the country. The only difference was that half named a man as the writer (for example, Michael Walker), while half named a woman (i.e., Mary Walker). It turned out that Mary’s scripts received significantly worse ratings in terms of quality, economic prospects and audience response than Michael’s. The biggest surprise? “These results are driven exclusively by the responses of female artistic directors and literary managers,” Ms. Sands said.

Amid the gasps from the audience, an incredulous voice called out, “Say that again?”

Ms. Sands put it another way: “Men rate men and women playwrights exactly the same.”

You know, blah blah patriarchy creates social structures in which women turn on other women, breaking apart the power of the sisterhood in order to divide and conquer blah blah. Anyway, I’d love to see the results of an economic study like this done on comics by women… I imagine they might be a bit different.

When you’re writing a profile of Naomi Klein for the New Yorker, you need to put things in terms your base readership can understand, or at least drop some cultural cues as to why Klein is polished enough for that full-page photo despite her dirty, dirty, plebey politics.

“She was wearing dark jeans tucked into tall brown boots, a crisp white shirt, and a long black blazer. She was dressed for a fox hunt. She looked terrific.”

“[Klein's home] is furnished simply, as though on one quick trip to Crate & Barrel.”

I guess a more cynical reading would be that the author is trying to undermine Klein’s thesis here. But then they really seem to genuinely love the outfits and the furniture over at the New Yorker.

I don’t know why everyone is so into the Mighty Boosh when they could be watching Time Trumpet.

No, not actually for kids. Well, maybe. I don’t know. It’s Tuesday, give me a fucking break.

Researchers learned that ants that perform specific tasks are no more efficient than regular ants. “It turns out,” said scientist Anna Dornhaus, “that the ones that are specialized on a particular job are not particularly good at doing that job.” … Ann Coulter had her mouth wired shut. … Planned Parenthood of Indiana announced plans to offer holiday gift certificates that can be applied toward the cost of checkups, contraception, or abortions. “They deserve coal in their stockings,” said Sister Diane Carollo of the Indianapolis Archdiocese.

And on that whole Wal-Mart stampede thing:

“It was crazy,” said a worker in the electronics department. “The deals weren’t even that good.”