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I know it seems like I’m metaposting up a storm here, but I have three important things that require your immediate attention.

• T Campbell is a one-man comics-themed empire and has a comics haiku site up.
• Comixpedia, the Webcomics wiki, is looking for a new home and new management! See this blog post for details!
• And finally … for everyone who’s been made to feel a little funny inside by Slylock Fox’s Cassandra Cat, for everyone who’s ever said, “Surely somewhere on the Internet there’s some Cassandra Cat porn” … well, this one’s for you. WARNING WARNING WARNING NOT SAFE FOR WORK OR YOUNG PEOPLE OR ANYONE ANYWHERE REALLY

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I’ve been sitting on all kinds of random stuff for a while, and why not throw it all together in one big metapost of FUN?

OK, first thing’s first: Readers! Do you live in, or near, New York City, and/or will you be in New York City on the evening of June 22? If so, you will have your chance to see the world-famous Comics Curmudgeon (aka me) make an ass of himself his first foray into live comedy-style entertainment! I was invited by a faithful reader who’s also some sort of big-city entertainment impresario to participate in an event called ROFL! The deal is that I and seven other hilarious individuals will present and/or explicate to the audience hilarious material we find in the depths of the Internet. Our performances are pitted against one another until one emerges the ULTIMATE CHAMPION! Victors are determined by audience hooting, so obviously I need to pack the joint with my supporters. The event is at Joe’s Pub, which is at 425 Lafayette Street, between Astor Place and East 4th Street, in Manhattan. You can buy tickets online for $12 plus services charges, or just come directly to Joe’s Pub or the Public Theater and avoid said service charges. I will be pimping this again closer to the actual event, unless I hear that it’s sold out, in which case I will mock you suckers who didn’t buy your tickets in time, so you should probably get your tix now, and buy an extra one in case you fall in love sometime in the next three weeks.

Speaking of random sort-of-related-to-comics things I do, I recently managed to bring together the comics-loving and tech journalism sides of my soul by doing an audio interview with Ryan North, creator of the ever-awesome Dinosaur Comics. We talked about Project Wonderful, his new auction-based ad system, which appears on many comics-related Websites (this one among them). You can check out the interview at ITworld.com — either read the transcript or, if you’re interested in finding out just how pinched and nasal my voice is, listen to the audio.

Changing the subject entirely: Many of you are no doubt familiar with Alison Bechdel, the writer and artist behind the long-running and much-beloved underground Dykes To Watch Out For strip (note: contains occasional nudity), who found critical acclaim last year for her graphic novel memoir Fun Home. What you almost certainly don’t know, however, is that she’s a longtime Mark Trail aficionado. She sent me this parody from about 12 years ago featuring Mo, her DTWOF protagonist, as the Man Himself:

Good to see the basic formula hasn’t changed.

Speaking of comics that contain occasional nudity, I’ve been meaning for a while to direct your attention to The Fart Party, a Webcomic by Julia Wertz, just because I love it so.

Speaking of comics that we should all be glad do not contain occasional nudity … have you ever wanted to illustrate a bit of FBOFW foefic? Web comic superstar T Campbell, who writes for Penny and Aggie and a whole bunch of other stuff, is looking for an artist for a Foob-related thingie he’s got cooked up. If you’re interested, e-mail him.

I conclude with two random bits from readers. First, faithful reader Kevin illuminated the thought process of many in regards to Apartment 3-G:

And faithful reader Mooncattie brought his Margo!Boxcar!Saturn! mug to the heart of Foobness itself — Toronto city hall!

Oh, and, uh, in regards to self-clubbing Tyler: I’m going to have a winner picked out … real … soon now. Real soon. Hey, choosing the best one is h-a-a-ard, OK? I don’t like making decisions! WAAAAHHHH! [Further Mike Patterson-style whining.]

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Hey, everybody! Ready for this week’s top comments? Here’s #1:

“I like the fact that in Santa Royale, nothing says drunkenness like loosening one’s tie ever so slightly.” –Andrew Leal

As my wife says: “I know it’s easy to make fun of Mary Worth, but that doesn’t make it any less satisfying.” Also satisfying is collating the list of runners-up:

“A3G: Aaargh!! Sunday’s strip was no more than a synopsis of all the previous week’s crap, and Monday’s is a synopsis of Sunday’s. I mean, how much torture can one woman take? And by that, I mean myself, of course, not Lu Ann.” –Kronkina

“Dagwood is disturbed by the fact that he had a sex dream about Blondie. They’ve never done it — just look at their children, who are creepily identical to them. Clearly the Bumsteads reproduce via mitosis, possibly by releasing a cloud of spores.” –Steve S

“I’m having a real problem with Mark Trail. He says most of his stories are interesting, which means, by his own low standards, some are not. Much like ‘Can God make a rock so heavy that not even he could lift it?’ the concept of a story so uninteresting that even Mark Trail calls it boring is a paradox that experts in the field of logic, and college students high on pot, will debate for the foreseeable future.” –Missy

“Perhaps Hi is simply such a poor golfer that he won’t even be able to achieve par on his children’s mockery of a course, and with the entire venue in view of the window, his atrocious failure will be public fodder for jokes for years to come. But more likely he’s simply afraid his children found the bodies.” –minosbull

“I think that Mark Trail is actually the Elrod Repertory Cartoon Company, in which many different characters are played by the same toons. For example, George Spelvin played both Bo Jones in ‘Andy Kidnapped by Rednecks at the Ivory Billed Woodpecker Woods’ and is now playing the role of ‘Buzzard’ in ‘Oh, Those Crooked Airport Pols.’ The same toon plays Cherry, Kelly Welly, and now Sam Hill. Those years of study at the Old Vic certainly paid off.” –Islamorada Girl

“Mrs. Lockhorn is right, life is not like a box of chocolates; chocolate goes straight to your hips, and Leroy hasn’t paid a visit to that region in years.” –andreavis

“If Milford’s Poorliest-Drawn Kidz Klub is going to help cure cancer, I bet their plan involves standing around like 1970s Sears mannequins in a lab and freaking out the scientists. ‘Oh, hey, are you kids here on a field trip?’ [Eerie silence.] ‘I said, are you here on a field trip? Do you want to watch me titrate this sample?’ [Eerie silence.] ‘Oh. Oh, no.'” –Yitzchok

“When Mike says ‘I’ll get it gassed up and ready,’ he’s actually referring to the Pattersons’ secret basement death chamber. The poor realtor will regret the day he sold them that tree-magnet of a house.” –Steve S

[On Funky Winkerbean]: “Doomlarity will ensue.” –Jym

“Don’t you just love the look on Heather’s face? Her internal thermostat has run up from ‘Nanny’ to ‘Au Pair’ to ‘Governess’ to ‘Ilsa: She-Wolf of the SS.'” –willethompson

“I’m off till Tuesday, secure in the knowledge that, when I return … county commissioners will still be behaving like typical liberal politicians who think any problem can be solved simply by throwing more birds at it.” –gh

“For someone’s who’s never had to drink from a glass without his butler’s assistance, Von’s a quick study: ‘Perhaps if I pour it on my forehead? Hmm, that didn’t work. No no, let me be, Jeeves, I want to puzzle this out for myself. Ah, what about into my ear? Unsatisfactory. It can’t be too difficult, surely. Poor people seem to manage it. Think, Von, think!'” –Old Bean

“I wonder if this was sent in by a dentist or a denture wearer. If it was sent in by a dentist, I find it very endearing that, when confronted by an obvious lie about broken dentures, the dentist’s vision of the awful truth is a brushing accident, and not the insane meth-induced BDSM/tooth breaking fetish nightmare that I would naturally lean towards. ‘Spongecake” indeed.” –evie oh oh

“Does the government keep a list of people aroused by reading Slylock Fox? Just looking at the strip makes me feel bad inside. It’s like getting off on the Junior Jumble.” –Flealick

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