Are any of you familiar with the term “watershed” in terms of the time period in television schedules during which ‘adult content’ can be shown.  It’s like 9:00 p.m. or something.  I had never heard of this until visiting my in-laws a few years ago and I thought I would share this information with you, my readers, in an effort to enlighten you.  We’re all about educating, here at Bubonic Press.

It’s by Max Huffman.  I especially liked this recent one: Mocktopus.

Intro: I’m currently reading Michael Chabon’s Manhood for Amateurs.  The book is a collection of autobiographical essays about being a father, a husband and a son.  These essays have inspired me to take a stab at writing down a few thoughts in a similar vein. 

My kids are currently 5 and 3 years old.  This means I’m slowly entering the years where the two of them will/should be able to play together.  In another decade, they’ll be able to play together nicely.  But as the two of them are slowly figuring out how to interact with one another, I’m slowly starting to figure out just how long a period of silence I’m willing to accept without taking action.

Let’s say the two of them are in the playroom and I’m in the kitchen.  When they start playing, I can hear the two of them clearly: one of them is suggesting some type of game, the other own offers an agreement or rebuttal and so on.  If the game begins in earnest, there should also be some verbal exchanges that follow.  Sometimes, if the game gets really involved, there comes a moment of silence.

To some of you, silence is golden and you’re thinking “how wonderful that my children can play together quietly”.  But let me be the one to tell you: it’s a false sense of security.  I will grant you that any moment of silence that lasts, let’s say, up to 30 seconds, is safe.  There’s not a whole lot of hijinks the two kids can get up to in 30 seconds.  If, after that period of time, the two of them begin chatting pleasantly again (rare) or arguing fiercely (common) or fighting (very common), your moment of silence is over and you must intervene.

If, however, the moment of silence drags on for an eternity (i.e. anything over 30 seconds), then you must intervene because the truth is that they are up to something.  Once that thirty-first second of silence reaches my consciousness, I throw down whatever I was doing/eating and hurl myself towards the playroom.  Inevitably, they’ve done one of the following things:

a) created a precarious pile of chairs, tables, cushions, books, toys and other objects to be able to reach the desirable but otherwise unattainable destination (sharp scissors, paints, light switch);

b) they’ve obtained the sharp scissors and/or paints and have proceeded to create their own arts and crafts project by dissecting and/or painting on whatever most prized possession you have in the playroom; or

c) somebody’s hurt and/or crying.

And there goes our moment of silence.

I encourage you all to go read the blog by John T. Unger, an artist who is facing some legal challenges by someone who is using his copyrighted work illegally.

Just to give you an idea what his story is about, it would be like if someone decided to take all my comics and print a book of my strips and sell them.  Then, when I ask the individual to stop, they turn around and file a lawsuit against me, saying my copyrights aren’t valid.  I think you can easily see how frustrating this must be for the artist in question.  Go have a read through his site to get more details.  Here’s a brief excerpt:

“I need your help. My original art has been copied by a manufacturer who is now suing me in federal court to overturn my existing copyrights and continue making knockoffs. I have a strong case, a great lawyer and believe that if I can continue to defend myself, the case will be resolved in my favor. If I run out of funds before we reach trial, a default judgment would be issued against me and could put me out of business. I don’t believe my opponent can win this case in court and I don’t believe he really intends to try. I believe his goal is to use strong-arm litigation tactics to force me to keep spending money or risk losing my copyrights — not by true adjudication, but by default if he is able to outspend me.”

Hey everybody!  A while back, I offered to draw custom-made wallpapers for anybody who submitted at least FIVE strip transcriptions via OhNoRobot.  I’ve decided to make these available to everybody.  At some point, they’ll probably become available through this site, but in the meantime, you can go find them at The Crown Prince’s Facebook page, entitled The Crown Prince’s Loyal Subjects.  If you like, you can use this opportunity to join the group on Facebook and help spread the good news.

If you’re still interested in transcribing strips, please click to go to OhNoRobot!

I guess I suck because it’s taken me this long to discover Kukuburi by Ramon Perez, but maybe I don’t suck quite so much because I have found it and now I’m telling more people about it!  Yay for non-sucking karma!  This is an amazingly beautiful fantastic story with a whole contingent of fabulous characters.  Race to this site, you will not be disappointed.

 http://kukuburi.com

I just came across this relatively new fantasy webcomic that I must recommend: Dead Heaven by Christopher Edwin Steininger.  Very impressive artwork and a story that is clearly taking place on a very large canvas.  Go check it out.

Today is the fourth anniversary of The Crown Prince.

I guess I have nothing more to add.  Feel free to express your sentiments of congratulations below.

I wanted to say a very special hello and welcome to a little princess named Abigail who was born last week! 

Many thanks to a good buddy who loaned me his scanner to get this strip done on schedule.  He’s loaned me his Epson Stylus CX4800 for a few weeks until I can do some research into what scanner I will buy.  It’s amazing how much faster this scanner is than my old one which was almost 10 years old.  It’s as if technology had progressed in that time or something!!

I guess I’m lucky that I rarely have computer hardware problems.  I tend to use the same equipment for years and years.  However, last night, my flatbed scanner of approximately 10 years suddenly up and died on me.  I can’t get it to register any power whatsoever, no matter what I do.  And, as you may be aware, scanning in my hand-drawn artwork is a pretty key step in doing the weekly strip.  So…

I’m now shopping for a scanner.  While I really like the idea of all-in-one printer/scanner jobbie, I already have a fully functional colour printer (also around 10 years old) so I’m not crazy about replacing that for nothing. 

Does anybody have any recommendations as to a (cheap) flatbed scanner that they find reliable?  How about the all-in-ones - any preferences?