|
|
June 30 2003: I enjoyed The Hulk more than I expected to, although certainly it was problematic in various ways. Saturday I directed a local go tournament and then saw the Celtic band Poor Man's Fortune, a long tiring but good day.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
June 23 2003: Journal Comic Jam will take you to a lot of autobio journal webcomics.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
June 16 2003: In case you are interested in the soon-to-appear summer movie League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen and aren't already aware that it's based on an Alan Moore comic, I would highly recommend reading the comics. The movie's based on the first volume (6 issues) which form a self-contained story. Great stuff, which I suspect is much better than the movie's going to be (though I still will probably see it, damn it, and hope that it's fun like The Mummy was or something).
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
June 9 2003: Lots of good comics out lately. Jason Lutes's Berlin #10; Jessica Abel's Perdida #3; Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen v2#5; Chester Brown's conclusion to Louis Riel; a new printing of Rick Veitch's Brat Pack; etc. I've also read the first 3 minicomic collections of local Austin artist Tim Doyle's autobio daily journal comic (Amazing Adult Fantasy) which is fun.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
June 2 2003: 2 guys sitting on a sofa holding game controllers is a fun idea.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
May 26 2003: Mi komencis skribi taglibron en Esperanto!
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
May 19 2003: Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
May 12 2003: Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
May 5 2003: Happy Webcomic Awareness Day! Zillions of webcomics (well, 80 or so) all make webcomics about webcomics... check 'em out!
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
April 28 2003: I'm gonna let last week's extra comic for Shakespeare's birthday run through this week since I'm way busy and braindead from a long weekend including an out-of-town go tournament and my first time hanging out with a local esperanto group. (If you are interested in esperanto, see my esperanto links page.) Next week will be my annual WCA comic.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
April 21 2003: If anyone speaks esperanto or is interested in it, feel free to email me. I'm just getting started with it.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
April 14 2003: Please Read the WCA FAQ if you make a webcomic and want to participate in the Webcomic Awareness group event this year (Monday May 5). This is its 3rd year.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
April 7 2003: Colin Upton has been doing some Iraq war diary webcomics. Meanwhile, Maura (star of the nifty webcomic Diesel Sweeties) has started a site Protestnude.com which has amusing amateur protest photos and is just what its URL claims...
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
March 24 2003: Far better political comics than mine that also have lots of good links and essays about US government actions are This Modern World and Ted Rall. Required reading, and far more informative than the pretty pictures of explosions on CNN.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
March 17 2003: My blog has more links about war and peace (and other stuff). I'm currently reading Joe Sacco's acclaimed comic Safe Area Gorazde which I recommend highly.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
March 10 2003: I have finally taken the plunge and set up a proper blog; it took me an hour or so to download movabletype, install and configure it. Enjoyably geeky tinkering.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
March 3 2003: I just saw Gangs of New York, which was good and also had some unexpectedly relevant stuff about military politics and ruthlessness toward civilians. I just read Joe Sacco's comic collection Notes from a Defeatist, which includes several well-researched pieces about past wars and bombing of civilians. E.g., "terror" tactics (attacking civilians) are bad now, but in WWII the word "terror" was used to refer to the allied strategies as well, e.g., "The allied air bosses have made the long-awaited decision to adopt deliberate terror bombing of the German population centers as a ruthless expedient to hasten Hitler's doom." (Associated Press) "There are no innocent civilians. It is their government and you are fighting a people, you are not trying to fight an armed force any more. So it doesn't bother me so much to be killing innocent bystanders." (General Curtis Lemay) So these days we are using "Shock and Awe" to talk about terror tactics (if the terror is done by the good guys). Interesting how language changes. I'm reminded of how the U.S. Department of Defense used to be called the Department of War.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
February 24 2003: I have set up a page of peace-related links. Consider taking Wednesday March 5 off to protest the war against Iraq.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
February 18 2003: Yay, my kofightclub.com email is working again -- thanks Gav.
Meanwhile, my peace march comic prompted several people to email me, some of whom had also participated in peace marches on Saturday, which was heartening. This whole thing really strikes a chord with people. The demonstrations over the weekend have caused the mainstream media to actually talk about dissent against the war instead of continuing to ignore it. There are lots of places on the web to get more info about the issues, e.g. MoveOn.org (which placed donation-funded anti-war ads in major newspapers and television recently), Austin Against War (which has lots of good links), etc. Don't take everything the administration says at face value; it can be easy to forget that there is a long history of lies getting us into wars, e.g.:
February 17 2003: I am currently frustrated that email to the kofightclub.com domain has been bouncing for several weeks due to the recent keenspace issues, and tech support seem AWOL. Compared to the threat of the US placing itself above the law and starting a catastrophic war, I know this is small potatoes, but it's still very irritating.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
February 3 2003: Well, this site was broken for almost 2 weeks, due to bad luck of multiple things going wrong at keenspace (including hard drive crashes and the latest internet worm), but the admins are getting things back up and running. (Although my domain name wasn't resolving for most of that time, KoFC was still accessible via http://russ.keenspace.com.) It seems that about 1000 sites were permanently lost, so KoFC was luckier than some, and I'm sure it's been an overwhelming amount of work getting all the problems sorted out. Thanks Gav et al.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
January 27 2003: Keenspace servers have been hosed since last Tuesday. Hopefully they're working again soon. In other news, Brent Haber noticed that 1973 underground comic Harold Hedd #2 has a go board in it.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
January 20 2003: Sad news for go players... Not many Westerners go to Japan and become professional go players; one who did was German Hans Pietsch (4 dan). He and Yoshiaki Nagahara (6 dan) were on a tour to promote and teach go in Cuba, Mexico, and Guatemala, where unfortunately Pietsch was shot and killed by a robber on January 16. More info at Daily Yomiuri and Deutscher Go-Bund.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
January 13 2003: Nowhere Girl is a good webcomic. Chloe is a good paper comic (by Hans Rickheit, whose work I've also enjoyed in the zine Propergander). Narc is a good movie.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
January 6 2003: I'm starting off 2003 with a schedule change... I was always ending up doing my Tuesday Comicollage and KoFC comics late Monday night (me being a major procrastinator and all), so one or the other would suffer, and I feel like I got into an artistic rut. So I'm trying a new Monday schedule for KoFC. I'm hoping to get the time and energy to try some new stuff for KoFC this year... after I finish obsessing over my page in this year's promotional keenspacebook, due in a couple weeks... And thanks to several folks who wrote nice and inspiring emails recently.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
December 31 2002: Happy New Year. A big chunk of my holiday time was spent plowing through various webcomic archives, including Lizard and The Devil's Panties. Also I recently got turned onto some of Andi Watson's comic books (Dumped, Slow News Day, Breakfast Before Noon). And of course there was The Two Towers, which was certainly good, though at this point I think I liked the Fellowship more; naturally I'll have to see it again to be sure...
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
December 24 2002: Happy holidays. Frida is a cool (albeit depressing) movie that does some neat visual stuff blending Frida Kahlo's paintings with live action.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
December 17 2002: Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
December 10 2002: Solaris is cool if you like arty weird movies.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
December 3 2002: Arty stuff I enjoyed over the Thanksgiving holiday for which I am thankful: Robert Irwin's novel The Arabian Nightmare... it's a wacked out Arabian Nights meets Borges or Eco type twisty novel with stories within stories. And 2 good movies: Bowling for Columbine and Far From Heaven.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
November 26 2002: The Keenspace admins are moving the webcomics to a new server this week, so there may be some disruption in service. This being Thanksgiving week, I'll say thanks to them for hosting webcomics for free!
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report, except that my host there has been down for the past couple days, alas.
November 19 2002: I read Richard Minear's fascinating book Dr. Seuss Goes To War and really enjoyed it. If you enjoy Dr. Seuss art or have any interest in the history of political cartoons, I highly recommend it. Most people don't realize Dr. Seuss did political cartoons for a couple years during World War II. You can see all of Dr. Seuss's WWII cartoons here. It was interesting to ponder about Dr. Seuss and war again.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
November 12 2002: Bleaching and coloring hair is fun, especially when done with 4 coworkers.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report, which includes a brief tribute to Sid Sackson, designer of great games, who passed away last week.
November 5 2002: The October issue of The Comics Journal has a fascinating interview with Ted Rall, which leaves me feeling quite cynical about politics (but all the more resolved to vote). Highly recommended reading, and the guy's done his homework (including visiting Afghanistan after 9/11). Rall also states his case in this article about the US attack on Afghanistan.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report, which includes a photo of me with a sock monkey alien bursting out of my chest.
October 29 2002: Halloween is the most labor-intensive holiday of the year. Hopefully I can get my costume idea to work.
There's an East Bay express article about Adrian Tomine.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
October 22 2002: The Ring is a scary cool movie. Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
October 15 2002: Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
October 8 2002: If you don't already know, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen volume 2 is finally out, and the first 3 issues rule. Also fans of Dylan Horrocks's Hicksville should check out Atlas. And there's a reference to Hicksville in the new issue of Dork, which was a fun surprise. Now that I think about it, there are so many good comics out there, I don't know why anyone would read my mediocre go cartoons! Hurm.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
October 1 2002: From a recent email newsletter from the folks at Drawn and Quarterly:
A funny thing happened at our booth in San Diego when Scott McCloud came round. Scott was talking about how people are nice to each other. Scott: "You know it's funny but I'm still basically friends with every girlfriend I've ever had. You know, now, later, we can all talk and it's nice to know that no one hates me. It's kind of like good karma I think" [Scott notices Joe Matt sitting at the table looking up at him with wide eyes] "Sorry Joe." And he did look truly sorry.And speaking of D&Q folks, the artist Seth did lots of comic artwork on the new Aimee Mann CD (which I've seen and heard and enjoyed); they said:
When we called him to tell him that Sony records had called looking for him for the new Aimee Mann record, Seth said, "Okay, that sounds great [pause] so who is Aimee Mann?"He's the magnificent bastard. Because he has no idea what the rest of the world is up to.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
September 24 2002: This week's AGA E-Journal mentioned the following:
"There's a famous painting by René Magritte called 'Clairvoyance' see, for example, http://www.iutc3.unicaen.fr/~moranb/accueilperso5.htm" writes Philip Cohen. "I mention it because of this great Go parody: http://mapage.noos.fr/echolalie/magritte.htm".
Cthulhu fans might want to check out Cute Abominations.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
September 17 2002: Ahoy, mateys -- there be only 2 days till Talk Like A Pirate Day!
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
September 10 2002: Easy to Go issue #8 (the Italian go online magazine) is out and has my old "Kyu, Dan, and All That" comic on page 32 (in Italian).
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
September 3 2002: Heads up to fans of HOSERS which was down for weeks due to technical woes (probably a bizarre government conspiracy): It's now back in action with its ongoing tale of mysterious and sometimes ridiculous secret agents, so check it out!
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
August 27 2002: The Go Congress was excellent fun as usual. I've written a report on a software testing experiment that software and math geeks might find interesting. I've also been trying to make all my webpages pass the W3C validator (as HTML 4.01 Transitional) as I create and edit them lately, but I have no control over the keenspace ads or generated calendar thingies, which insist on doing wacky things. Also I see my old Watchmen Bench strips got a negative blurb over at Sensible Erection.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
July 29 2002: Less than a week till The Best Week Of The Year!
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
July 22 2002: In just a couple weeks I'll be in Chicago for the annual US Go Congress. Woohoo! Hard to believe it's finally that time of year again. If anyone wants to do a guest strip for me that week, that'd be groovy.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
July 15 2002: I have my computer working again. And I got a major haircut. Oh, life is just full of change. Meanwhile keenspace apparently is having trouble with DNS issues again, so if kofightclub.com doesn't take you to this little comic site of mine, try russ.keenspace.com (for future reference).
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
July 1 2002: Achewood is good absurdist fun.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
June 24 2002: Latest fun webcomic discovery = Something Positive.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
June 17 2002: I read the first chapter in the Crackwalker archives, and I haven't seen any other webcomic like it... it has the feel of some slice-o-life autobio indy comics I've read, with a slow attention to detail and mood in an everyday setting. I'm looking forward to getting the time to read the next chunk, which curiously looks to be in a fantasy setting. Meanwhile I was busy Saturday with a local go tournament which was good fun and had a good turnout of 30 players, woohoo!
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
June 10 2002: Pirates keep coming up lately in my life. E.g. recently at PVP and recently at The New Adventures of Death (for the latter you must pay gold dubloons to see the pirate strips in the archives, you scurvy dog! Arrrrh!)
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report, which has pirates.
June 3 2002: Some webcomics I've enjoyed recently: Journal Comic is daily autobio by Drew Weing which delights me. Life in Four Panels is Robb Tanner's new comic with experimental art and funny slice-o-life writing.
It seems KeenSpace is being unreliable again lately... as I type this, I can't upload this news or today's comic. Someone has set up a handy site tracking the KeenSpace uptime/downtime.
I just saw an opera The Music of Erica Zann based on the H.P. Lovecraft short story of similar title. That was pretty cool. Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
May 27 2002: It's Memorial Day. Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
May 20 2002: Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
May 12 2002: Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
May 6 2002: Yesterday was Webcomics Awareness Day, so be sure to check out all the nifty webcomics about webcomics. About 50 webcomics participated! Wrangling that with Jim sucked up a lot of time and energy, but it's good fun. Thanks everyone who participated!
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
April 25 2002: Check out the guest strip I did today for Fight Cast or Evade!
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
April 22 2002: Yes, do come back tomorrow for another comic!
Time Magazine's comic column TIME.comix.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
April 8 2002: Our Most Assiduous Reader will notice that KoFC now updates Mondays, since comicollage is enough Tuesday updating for me.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
April 2 2002: Well I was a lazy bastard and didn't do anything for April Fools Day here yesterday.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
March 26 2002: I was happy to see Lord of the Rings get best soundtrack Oscar... I've been playing that CD to death.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
March 18 2002: I'm happy I got to see my favorite band Clandestine over the weekend, and also see Golden Arm Trio playing their live score to the F.W. Murnau silent film classic Faust as part of SXSW. Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
March 12 2002: It's 6 months after WTC, and I recently read several of the impressively thick 9/11 comic anthologies (which should be available at any decent comic store) -- an amazing number of writers, artists, and stories contributed to these, with proceeds going to charity. I got 9-11 Emergency Relief (by Alternative Comics) first, which has a lot more small press indie b&w type comics, then the full-color 2-volume 9-11 collection (volume 1 by Dark Horse, volume 2 by DC) which has a lot of bigger mainstream/superhero names. All the collections are well worth checking out, especially with proceeds going to relief organizations. Of course most of the stories cover expected ground (personal reminiscence; sadness and anger and frustration; the heroism of the rescuers; optimism and hope; the bigoted backlashes; patriotism vs jingoism; etc.) but some are rather surprising, and most of them are well done indeed. It was quite an experience reading so many different comics all dealing with the same subject with so many different art styles and viewpoints.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
March 4 2002: If you make a webcomic and want to participate in the upcoming WCA2002 project, read this FAQ.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
February 26 2002: I seem to be on a roll with the go-related comics lately. Probably because I've been playing lots of go again. Woohoo! If you're in Austin, stop by Tuesday night go club at Great Hall Games. I also wasted much time over the weekend doing go problems at goproblems.com which is a pretty nifty site, if you're into that sort of thing.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
February 16 2002: The Forum got changed to a new system, but all the old threads are still there; thanks to keenspace admin Kelly Price.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
February 10 2002: I recently found Cat and Girl and devoured the archives in one sitting.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
February 5 2002: Now that the "William gives cute Japanese candy to goth kids" fiasco is resolved, I have no idea what I'll be doing next in the way of comics; I'm guessing surrealism/absurdism. Bonus points for knowing the significance of yesterday.
I saw LOTR a second time, because I am addicted to the soundtrack.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
January 26 2002: The upgraded Keenspace servers are up and running! Meanwhile, Remi and I have been doing a little comic jam... Remi drew the first one, then me, then Remi, and so on... do check it out.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
January 22 2002: The Keenspace servers are still a little flaky due to the upgrade not going smoothly, so if you've had trouble reaching this or other keenspace comics, that's why! Top men are working on it.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
January 15 2002: I was obliged to see A Beautiful Mind since it has math and go in it. I liked it more than I expected to, though it certainly got syrupy at the end. Other movies more worth seeing are Lord of the Rings (but then you've no doubt already seen it), Royal Tenenbaums, Amelie, and Mulholland Drive.
The Keenspace servers are a little flaky lately due to some more upgrading which will hopefully improve their performance, woohoo! Meanwhile, I can't complain since they niftily supply free hosting to a zillion webcomics.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
January 8 2002: Lately I seem to be putting more time & energy into my comicollage tuesday comics, so check them out if you've not already. I'm putting even more time & energy into playing go again, but sadly I'm on a losing streak. That's what I get for not playing for a while.
In case you haven't seen it, Dave Sim (Cerebus) has written an amazingly odd anti-feminist essay, reproduced at The Comics Journal, worth reading if you're into the paper comics scene at all. Very odd indeed.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
January 1 2002: Happy New Year!
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
December 24: Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
December 18: Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
December 12: Argh, no comic this week, it's been crazy busy. Go admire the mediocre newbie acrylic painting I spent way too long on at comicollage, since Scrubbo handed me a Preacher reference on a silver platter, which was fun even if it did keep me up till 4am. As my design teacher says, the first 4 letters of "paint" are "pain". Anyway, with no free time till Saturday afternoon now to do a KoFC strip, I may as well just pick up again next Tuesday. Yeah, I am lame. Not only that, I owe a jam strip back to Remi who's restarted Too Fat! Check it out.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
December 4: I've read lots of good paper comics lately. I recently discovered Tony Millionaire's Maakies and Adventures of Sock Monkey comic books. Great stuff; the web versions don't do justice to the printed versions which really show off his terrific intricate linework. Also picked up some of the Garth Ennis war stories comics, and more Alan Moore (Greyshirt has his own series now!) And the latest Adrian Tomine Optic Nerve. Also, a month or so ago I read the first book of Jessica Abel's Perdida which is powerful stuff. Hie thee to a comic store.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
November 27: Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
November 19: New silliness tomorrow, and back to a weekly Tuesday schedule. Have a happy Thanksgiving.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
November 14: OK, this is a complete full page 4-part story running this week, each day through Friday, just because.
November 13: Well, I got some favorable feedback about my recent political cartoons, but I think it's time to move on to something else for a while. I've been feeling in a bit of a creative rut from analysis paralysis, so I decided to try a more surreal experimental approach, and see where my subconscious takes me. This was partly inspired by Scott McCloud's recent improvisational comics which I found rather enjoyable. Meanwhile as usual I do the Tuesday comic at Comicollage.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
November 6: Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
October 29: Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
October 23: Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
October 16: Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
October 6: Cool, I got fun Bench/Ko Fight Club gift art from Brennon Ludwig. Brennon's in one of my art classes, where I told him about the webcomic scene, and now he's making fan art like crazy! He did one for Comicollage which will appear there soon. Thanks, dude!
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
October 2: Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
September 25: The WTC and its aftermath have really affected me. Conversations and email threads about it leave me simultaneously despairing that we will ever achieve peace, and hopeful that we might eventually break the cycle of violence. (Kind of like watching American History X, but I digress.) After running my art project peace propaganda posters the past 2 weeks, I'm expecting I'll probably return to more traditional comic form next week, though I probably won't have WTC out of my system... Maybe I'll collect some of the voluminous email I've written about this and put it on the site; in the meantime my comics will have to speak for me on this important subject.
Meanwhile, if you're looking for my whimsical side, go read the sublimely silly side project I'm part of, comicollage!
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
September 9: I entered the Burnt Dog Radio August cameo identification contest on a lark, just answering some of them off the top of my head, and I won even though I didn't recognize all the characters. Woohoo! So now you know: reading webcomics can pay off.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
September 4: I think I'll keep doing a comic here on Tuesday. That way KoFC and my comicollage strip both update on the same day.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
August 28: Indeed I did cut back my KoFC comics. The little break was nice. Not surprisingly I played a lot of go online. Boy am I sucking lately. As for all the keenserver woes lately, the rumors say that this time they really are fixed, mostly.
Check out the Muscular Dystrophy Association webcomic telethon!
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
August 22: I may cut back to 1 or 2 KoFC comics per week instead of 3 since I'm currently lacking a clear vision of where I want KoFC to go, and I am being distracted by several other projects. Plus the keenservers are being frustrating lately anyway. I'm also continuing Tuesday comics at Comicollage. I realize this will come as sad news to a small handful of people. :)
August 20: No new comic today, sorry. Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
August 13: Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
August 10: Sorry the comic is updating late this past week or so; KoFC's not the only one suffering. The Keenspace servers are in some sort of painful upgrade chaos flux. (That's also why http://www.kofightclub.com was dead a couple days ago: nameserver messup during the transition. If you ever can't get to this site, you might try http://russ.keenspace.com instead, which was still working.)
August 6: Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
July 30: I am back and exhausted! It was of course a great week of go playing. If you're unfamiliar with go or the go congress then the rest of this paragraph won't make much sense. I did better than I expected (given that I'd not played much in the past year), winning half my games in the US Open, and I won the lower division of the 13x13 tournament and also won the Straight Shooter award in the self-paired tournament, by defeating 12 players with successive ranks from 1 kyu to 12 kyu. There was also a cool computer go tournament with 12 programs competing. And lots more.
July 18: Good news for KoFC readers: I have received some fun guest strips which will go up next week while I'm off playing go, thanks to the keen power of Keen automation.
July 16: Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
July 13: Happy Friday the 13th! In 8 days, I'll leave to vacation for a week at the annual US Go Congress for a week (which will be the best week of the year, even if I have neglected my go skills lately), so I'm not starting a new story till after that; meanwhile enjoy random nonsense strips, and if anyone wants to send me a filler guest strip, that'd be groovy (and you'd enjoy the awesome power of linkage from KoFC). And if you're going to the congress, I look forward to seeing you!
July 9: I'm in a tired lazy uninspired state now that WS's Memento is finished, so I'm taking a day off to regroup and recharge! Meanwhile, I'm still doing Tuesdays at Comicollage (where I also did a fill-in Sunday strip) so if you haven't checked out Comicollage yet, you might give it a try!
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
July 1: I've moved the keenspace pulldown to my links page since it's grown so large. Also I've learned a bit of html lore and have fixed a bunch of my href links on the links page to say "http://foo.com/" instead of "http://foo.com" since I'm told the trailing slash is better: it eliminates a back-and-forth transmission. So I hear anyway.
There was a webcomic awards thingie. The awards presentation is done via comic strips, which is cool. This Ko Fight Club thing of mine actually got a couple nominations, so thanks to folks who voted for KoFC, even though I don't think KoFC deserved to win against all the great comics out there. :) Comicollage was nominated as well!
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
June 27: I see there's meta stuff happening at Screwball McGoo's Sluggy! The June 24 strip is but the first of several Sunday strips which will apparently be Fight Club-esque and/or Ko Fight Club-esque... meta-cool, indeed. I for one am most interested to see what happens next.
June 25: Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
June 19: I spent the weekend in Houston visiting family and checked out the Yves Tanguy retrospective at the Menil art museum. I have enjoyed Tanguy's surreal landscapes since I first discovered his work years ago, so this was a treat. (I also did Monday's comic late Sunday night after the long weekend trip, hence its sloppy art... bleah.)
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
June 11: Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
June 2: I had fun doing a substitute strip that appears today at Comicollage. I do a strip there every Tuesday as well.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
May 28: Happy Memorial Day to all you Memento fans!
I've been using PNG instead of GIF image files for several weeks now, and no one's complained about not being able to view PNG files, so I'll just continue using them without the accompanying blurb from now on. Several other comics have been using them instead of GIFs now as well, so it appears the webcomic world is safe for PNG.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
May 22: Enigmatic forces compel me to mention Weishaupt Scholars. Unscramble their tricks [sic]. Only an elite few know the full story. There are some secrets man was not meant to know. Fnord.
May 21: Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
In case you missed it, May 5 was Cartoonists Day and a bunch of webcomics decided to celebrate. I webmastered the WCA2001 central links page where you can jump to 50 different webcomics about webcomics. My personal pick of funniest is probably at Strange Daze. :)
Wrangling WCA2001 (and WS2001) was rather draining. It is possible I'll be cutting back on the update schedule; I've been doing 4 KoFC strips per week for a while now, and my life is getting spread a bit thin. I'm not sure yet. Maybe I'll go to MWF instead of MWFS. I'm also still doing Tuesday strips every week at Comicollage.
I found a review of Ko Fight Club by Number 12, who has a very nice and useful collection of short webcomic reviews. That was a fun surprise to find in my referrer logs!
Inspired by a Help Desk rant, I've decided to begin using PNG instead of GIF files since most people these days use browsers that support PNG format. If you find this causes problems, please email me and tell me what browser you're using; I expect and hope that no one would even notice if I hadn't pointed it out.
My Burnt Dog Radio guest strip appeared May 4.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
Action Item is a funny little one-page comic I found floating around at work.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
The austin.rr mail servers seem to be sort of working again, although I never did get most of my mail from last week, so if anyone sent me anything important I didn't reply to, better resend it, please.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
I've set up a cameos/fanart/etc page.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
And Too Fat to be a RockStar is back in action, now that Remi's settled here in Austin!
If you make a webcomic, check out the Webcomics Awareness project, a group event open to all webcomics. (Or if you know a webcomic maker who might be interested, let them know.)
Speaking of Benchly things, there is official Bench clip art over at that wacky Low Pass comic strip tool. (As opposed to my russ-like heavily doctored Bench clip art which is also there.)
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
Comicollage continues to chug along, but we burned through our nice 3-week cushion of strips and are now just doing them at most a couple days ahead of time... we hope to get a buffer again. One of us (Brian) is stepping down so we'll need a compatible replacement artist who can commit to trying to do a strip within a few hours (or at most a day) of receiving their predecessor's strip (which might arrive any time or day of the week), and no planning ahead of the strips. If that's you, let me know!
Update: Wow, many thanks to CapTVK of Bench fame for this cool clever birthday comic!
|
|
|
|
By the way, Keenspot/space and other webcomics were profiled in a Detroit Free Press news article!
Meanwhile, check this out: I've contributed some art from my past strips to that wacky Low Pass comic strip tool, and it's showing up in lots of strips. I believe the first one with my art is #3269, which uses my laboratory and white house backgrounds and seems to be written in a hybrid of English and some Scandinavian language... go forward through the strips from there, and you'll get Ko Fight Club deja vu all over again! Meanwhile, the enigmatic stableboy and my pal Jay have made more strips as well.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
Finally, I've had a report of a troublesome error popup when reading the KoFC main page with Netscape on Linux... it's presumably got to do with one of the javascript thingies, but who knows which one... anyone else having problems? Anyone else using Netscape on Linux? I'd like to sort this out, and thanks Anderson for taking the time to let me know! If anyone else has html/browser problems, please let me know.
BTW as I type this Sunday night, The Bench hasn't updated yet. I did play boardgames at an antisuperbowl get-together which was good fun.
Thanks to Jim of Algernon's Dilemma who generously mailed me an original of one of his strips in thanks for some minor computer help I gave him. If you enjoy the retro feel of newspaper comics from the past, check out his comic!
Also check out Keenvention, which is essentially just a comic links directory, but with more flair than most as it's laid out like a convention, including some interesting interviews and panel discussions!
And Comicollage continues -- that's the ongoing daily comic jam with 7 different artists -- I'm Tuesday. Please do check it out! I'm having good fun with that since it gets me making a strip in a burst of adrenalin instead of my more usual approach of pondering a while.
So the slowdown time has arrived. I plan to continue the late 2000 schedule: 2 or 3 related strips per week as well as a Sunday Bench strip. I'll just have to see which schedule works best. Sorry I can't really commit to keeping a daily pace... Thanks for your support!
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
The mysterious and elusive stableboy continues his reign of terror at that wacky Low Pass comic strip tool, to which I've made a feeble reply, and Jay has made more strips as well.
Update: The Bench updated fine last night! Hurray for Rossman or whatever mysterious forces are at work! It seems I was not the only one worried about it, as my Bench pal CapTVK also did a timely Bench strip but failed to upload it in time, due to his disturbing lack of faith in a timely update. He asked if I might post it here since its humor might go stale in a week, so click here to see it possibly a week before the unwashed masses!
Meanwhile, a bold new tradition in community cartooning continues at that wacky Low Pass comic strip tool, which now has a strip by me inspired by stableboy's strips.
This week I am running my 5 strips from Party 2001. This multipurpose move lets me:
That wacky Low Pass comic strip tool has some strips by stableboy that might intrigue Ko Fight Club readers... No, I didn't make them!
Also, if you are a Watchmen fan (and if you read Ko Fight Club you probably are, or will be) you should check out the early January comics at Snail Dust, starting with January 3.
Group 2's Party 2001 project is all up for your viewing pleasure! I'm particularly happy with the final strip I did for it, which is unusually dimensioned and has a whole lot of cameos from other comics. Check it out!
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
Meanwhile I'm in the final stages of wrangling Group 2's Party 2001 project. Besides characters from the 5 comics involved in creating it, there are a bunch of cameos from other comics too. I'll let you know for sure when that's all posted!
While in Houston, I drew today's Friedey's strip, and realized it was the first time I've drawn a strip anywhere besides in my own house. It was kind of weird at first, but then I got into it, and it didn't matter where I was. And yes I know this Friedey's story is totally wacko. :)
Boardgamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
Later this month watch for the launch of Comicollage, an ongoing daily comic jam with 7 creators and no planning ahead. I'm one of the fools involved in that madness! We've got some incidental art up now, but the real stuff starts Xmas Eve!
I've added Extreme Tracker to this webpage (it's the little blue planet thingie), thanks to a tip from Tyler who does the sf comic PB Galaxy. It seems to be working fine and gives nice reports. So if you want a free web stats program, check it out. At the same time, thanks to Keenspace's Nate who got my Keen webalizer stats working. The Keen system registers visits to any of my pages; I assume Extreme Tracker only registers visits to this main page. In any case, coolness. Double your statistics, double your fun! Hoody-hoo!
I have registered to take a printmaking class in the spring... perhaps in a few months there will be yet more art experiments in my comics.
Department of Eldritch: I have read the first 2 issues of The Doom That Came to Gotham, a DC Elseworlds/Batman comic set in the 1920s. I am really loving this one. It combines the Lovecraftian Cthulhu mythos with the Batman mythos amazingly; I never would have guessed there were so many parallels... plus they toss in some cool Nosferatu imagery. It's a 3 part story, so I am eager to get the concluding issue!
So I made a reference to byakhees in my Sunday Bench strip, and the Lovecraftian horror doesn't stop there, as I discovered this eldritch new comic Ancient Messages. Eerie!
My cut at C3 led thad to resign the pbm go game. We've started another, but I shall not inflict it upon you in these news blurbs.
For those waiting desperately for an update on the pbm go game, here's the latest:
It is russ's turn.
Black White
thad russ
35 J7 36 F5
37 A5 38 A6
39 A4 40 D4
41 E3
thad has captured 2 stones
russ has captured 0 stones
A B C D E F G H J
9 - - o x x - - - - 9
8 - - o x - x - x - 8
7 - o x o x x x - x 7
6 o - x o o o o x x 6
5 x o o o x o - o o 5
4 x x x o x o - - - 4
3 - - - x X o - - - 3
2 - - - - - - - - - 2
1 - - - - - - - - - 1
A B C D E F G H J
Alert readers should see the only move for white. :)
All the gaming kept me so distracted I forgot to mention that gamers can check out the latest RussCon Report.
November 25: That curmudgeonly penguin Flux from Get With The Program has written a review of Ko Fight Club! Ko Fight Club is the first victim of Flux's acid pen, and he plans to bring more comics under his harsh gaze each weekend. Hey, I don't mind what Flux writes about me as long as he spells "Ko" correctly... and I'm glad he enjoyed the Hanson Vampires story. :)
I have done a major overhaul on my links page. It kept growing longer and longer, about 100 comics now, so I've sorted it alphabetically! This should make it a lot easier to find a title...
I've recently discovered the new boardgame Carcassonne, which is a tile placement game, about building up a medieval city with cities, roads, fields, and cloisters. Imagine Entdecker crossed with Euphrat & Tigris crossed with The Very Clever Pipe Game... It combines elements of those games into a surprisingly cool new game which I really enjoyed (and played 3 times in a row on Thanksgiving, winning all 3, then 4 more times at Great Hall on Friday night, but only won once...). Great fun, simple and elegant rules, a blend of strategy and luck, and very pretty components. Woohoo!
Check out Diesel Sweeties if you've not already (hey, they're more popular than me so you probably already know them!). DS has really cool retro looking art and funny strips. Plus robot romance! Woohoo!
Flem is a comic I'd read a while back and lost track of, then recently rediscovered (thanks to PA). Flem used to be single gag strips, kind of an NC-17 rated Far Side, but the new stuff is a cool long ongoing story not for the easily offended. I annoyed James into putting a much needed "previous" button with the current strip (all the impure.org sites seem to have that moody dark gothy inexplicable navigation, you know what I'm talking about), and so he featured me in his 11/18 update. So check it out! Unless you're allergic to sex, drugs, and random violence...
Meanwhile, in the pbm go game, the crowd goes wild as the upper right is taken by black while white seizes the upper left!
It is thad's turn.
Black White
thad russ
23 H8 24 E8
25 F8 26 C8
27 D9 28 C9
29 E9 30 B7
thad has captured 1 stones
russ has captured 0 stones
A B C D E F G H J
9 - - o x x - - - - 9
8 - - o x - x - x - 8
7 - O x o x x x o - 7
6 - - x o o o o - - 6
5 - o o o x - - - - 5
4 - x x - x o - - - 4
3 - - - x - o - - - 3
2 - - - - - - - - - 2
1 - - - - - - - - - 1
A B C D E F G H J
I have started playing go on the net again, at the new Kiseido Go Server. It's pretty nifty, with a Java client (so it works for Windows, Mac, Unix...). There aren't many people playing there yet, but I've nonetheless found it easy to get a game both times I've tried so far.
It is thad's turn.
Black White
thad russ
9 E7 10 E6
11 F7 12 D7
13 D8 14 F6
15 C6 16 B5
thad has captured 0 stones
russ has captured 0 stones
A B C D E F G H J
9 - - - - - - - - - 9
8 - - - x - - - - - 8
7 - - x o x x - - - 7
6 - - x o o o o - - 6
5 - O o - x - - - - 5
4 - x - - - - - - - 4
3 - - - x - o - - - 3
2 - - - - - - - - - 2
1 - - - - - - - - - 1
A B C D E F G H J
It is thad's turn.
Black White
thad russ
1 C7 2 G6
3 D3 4 C5
5 B4 6 F3
thad has captured 0 stones
russ has captured 0 stones
A B C D E F G H J
9 - - - - - - - - - 9
8 - - - - - - - - - 8
7 - - x - - - - - - 7
6 - - - - - - o - - 6
5 - - o - - - - - - 5
4 - x - - - - - - - 4
3 - - - x - O - - - 3
2 - - - - - - - - - 2
1 - - - - - - - - - 1
A B C D E F G H J
Hmm, this makes me ponder such milestones; I'm normally rather oblivious to them. I've now got 179 strips in my archive, and I didn't know that till I looked. :) A few days ago I was thinking of doing a 100th Bench strip special, then I noticed I've already done over 100 Bench strips. Oops!
Getting registered onto lists and rings, which should be a trivial automated task, sometimes inexplicably takes forever. Coincidentally I had 2 successes this week in the trenches of webcomic promotion. After several weeks of snafus I am finally registered on the Comix/pedia Top 50 List (the daily clicking of which moves me higher up the list and increases your chances of winning a trip to an expensive German brothel). And the admin of the Ultimate Comics Webring (the clicking of which shows you a list of other sites on the ring and has no effect on your travel plans) also recently added me to the ring 3 months after I signed up and got a registration number in July... I had forgotten about that one!
Meanwhile, my hope is that after careful recounting of the Florida ballots, it is discovered that Ralph Nader is the new president.
Anyway the show itself was good; I enjoyed Glass's music and thought it worked surprisingly well with this 1931 Dracula. The only annoying thing was that Glass and Kronos Quartet played behind the movie screen, but were sometimes illuminated so we could see them superimposed over the movie action; it was intended as an arty effect, but it was usually just distracting. They should have just done it for the opening credits, then let us watch the movie and hear the good music. Or had the band below or beside the screen.
I do prefer the 1922 classic Nosferatu, and it's hard to beat the Brown Whörnet live music for Nosferatu which I've seen a couple times now at Alamo Drafthouse.
Speaking of the undead, my Friedey's story which began Halloween continues Tuesday and Friday this week!
The boardgamers among you might check out the latest RussCon Report. This is at a new ad-free host I just copied the RussCon website to; I think it's going to work out well, thanks to PJ!
Before that, we hung out at Great Hall where there was the usual Tuesday night miniatures painting going on. I discovered there's a webcomic about miniatures gaming: Larry Leadhead. I have never really gotten into hardcore miniatures games. They take up a lot of space, money, and painting time. And the rules systems are typically somewhat complex, with continuous movement: I prefer discrete movement, e.g. a hex grid. But I like the idea of miniatures, and they're cool to look at. So I'm glad some folks are seriously into them, so I can admire their handiwork. RussCon regular Dan has a web page about painting his Battle Cry miniatures, and they looked almost as good as the set Brady painted for the MillenniumCon tournament which JP won and keeps forgetting to bring to RussCon (hint hint).
The boardgamers among you might check out the latest RussCon Report.
The current Battle Cry Manhattan story should be concluded by next week. Perhaps something Halloween themed will be coming up next!
I've removed the poll about how people came to this site. Results: 39 people answered it; 18 of you know me personally, 5 of you came from my Bench strips, 5 from seeing my sig, 5 from gaming sites, and a few miscellaneous others. The majority of my audience is a silent mystery. Anyway, if you know someone who might like Ko Fight Club, please tell them about it. Thanks!
October 19: Woohoo, Ko Fight Club was linked in Steve Jackson Games' Daily Illuminator today! Welcome to new readers. If you like boardgames and weird comics, then you may enjoy my site! You've come in during a longer storyline which is a Battle Cry and Watchmen crossover, updating every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Fnord.
In other news, Remi over at Too Fat to be a RockStar drew my alter ego in his strip for yesterday, a little cameo of me playing go in a coffee shop. Cool! It reminds me of a few years ago when Austin Go Club met in a coffee shop.
October 13: Happy Friday the 13th! I expect to be unlucky gaming tonight at Great Hall, but have fun nonetheless. If you're a boardgamer, you might check out the latest RussCon Report. If you are interested in seeing some of my non-comic art, I've put some up at my home page here.
October 6: Thanks to folks who gave feedback on Wednesday's experimental long strip -- much appreciated! I'm curious if anyone has seen any other webcomics that are unusually large like that; let me know!
Also, boardgamers might want to read the latest RussCon Report.
Also, interested parties may peruse the latest RussCon Report.
Come back Monday for my new long full-color story that will last several weeks! I plan to run them Monday/Wednesday/Friday since I've got the first 3 strips drawn now and I want to keep ahead with it. Weekends continue to be for the Bench, natch.
The Bench continues to be a source of connection frustration; I've not been able to get to it for a week now. Tycho uploaded my Bench strip for me last Saturday. I hope this gets resolved soon. The people in charge say everything's right at their end, and those of us who can't see it (I'm not the only one) have proxy servers set up wrong or something. Blah. I can see every other page I go to fine.
I wonder how many other people can see the Bench ok, so I'll use this as an excuse to try out a poll...
[I removed the poll since they got the Bench working again, yea! Thanks for voting!]
In case I actually have regular readers who are not part of my boardgaming group, I'll try to remember to link to my weekly RussCon Report. The most recent one is September 13.
If you're into voting for webcomics you like, check out my Rings & Lists section below. I'm not very into the "Top 100" type lists that want readers to click their button every day. (I think they usually only register one vote a day from each reader, so whatever comic you click on their button first from is the one that gets your vote.) If you want to, cool. If not, I don't mind. They can be a handy way to find some other comics you might enjoy. Or you can go to my own links page! Big Panda is interesting because (if I understand it right) it rewards comics whose readers click to other comics through the Big Panda pulldown. For a while people thought Big Panda was no longer being maintained, but it recently got active again and Ko Fight Club is listed there now, along with 1000 other webcomics. That inspired me to make the new logo! September 11: The Battle Cry muse has struck, and this week will be all Battle Cry comics!
I played Battle Cry last night with Jeffles at Great Hall Games, a new game store here in Austin. I also finally got to play Starfarers of Catan (a sequel to Settlers of Catan). Great Hall Games hosts a Friday night gaming session which a half dozen of us RussCon folks went to last night. I've gotten spoiled with people coming to my place every week, so I haven't gotten out much to play boardgames elsewhere. Thanks to the folks at Great Hall for a fun time; I'll be back!
August 29: I've registered for an art class at Austin Community College which starts today. I'm sure many of you will be relieved and thinking it's not a moment too soon! I've been looking forward to taking an art class.
Also, my cohort Remi over at Too Fat to be a RockStar has a cameo appearance of the world's oldest game in his August 28 strip. Not to mention Star Wars references, not unlike my August 23 strip. Woohoo! It's hard to go wrong with The Force. (Well, ok, there was that whole Phantom Menace thing, but let's just ignore that.)
August 20: Late Sunday night... I just spent the weekend running the boardgames room at ArmadilloCon which was fun but exhausting. We had a little Settlers of Catan tournament, and a tournament of the games of Reiner Knizia. I ended up never going to any panels or other con stuff outside the boardgame room except the Saturday night dance, and a quick spin through the art show and dealer's room. Thanks to Jay for letting me use his laptop to run the ratings program, and to my lovely assistants Sea Biscuit and Dawn. Now I must sleep.
August 15: I am back from the Go Congress (which was in Denver this year). That was a great vacation. I won the 13x13 tournament (kyu division) and I got 2nd place in the 5 & 6 kyu band of the U.S. Open. I played a bunch of go, saw a few pro lectures, hung out with great folks I only get to see once a year, bought some nifty stuff, and generally had a blast, even taking into account things like the flat tire, getting relocated twice in the dorms, the repeatedly flooded bathroom, etc. Truly the Go Congress is the greatest week of the year for me. I can think of no better way to spend a week. Well, sure, there's always a week in an expensive German brothel, but that's expensive.
Also today my cable modem was finally repaired. It seems my neighbor's dog had dug up the cable and chewed it up. So new Ko Fight Club strips are en route every couple days again.
August 4: Late Friday night... what a day for my normally-reliable cable modem to go down. I waited all day until about 8pm for the service guy to finally show up, and he wasn't able to fix it. It won't be fixed until Tuesday Aug 15 after I get back from Denver! I'm doing this brief update at a friend's house. If anyone tried to email me today, I won't see it till I'm back from my trip. I'm getting ready to leave early tomorrow morning for the Go Congress. Won't be back till following weekend. Ko Fight Club will be on vacation this week as well. See you Aug 15 I hope.
August 1: There's a Keenspace Icebreaker event, kind of a spoof of the Keenspot Bikeeni event. Check it out! I've got a pinup at the Icebreaker.
July 31: Rearranged this front page a little to make more room for the comic itself. Anyone think it looks better or worse than the old way (with the menu of options to left of comic instead of to left of this news log?) Also added Boardgame Links page!
July 30: This will be all-Bench week. I've got six Watchmen VI strips in the queue, one per day, starting Monday! Due to popular demand (well 3 requests anyway), I've updated the FAQ to include info on acquiring the Fight Club font!
July 27: There's a really fun Fight Club thing happening over at the Acid Reflux comic now!
July 24: 600 more visits than normal yesterday. Wow! Anyway, this week will be a more leisurely Mon/Wed/Fri schedule of go strips.
July 23: Thanks to Tycho for linking to me from Sunday's Bench update at Penny Arcade! If you're a new arrival from PA/Bench, welcome! To see my first non-Bench comic, start with June 1. I hope you enjoy my non-Bench comics, which I've been making mostly to amuse myself and my boardgaming pals. Feel free to email me or visit my Forum ! Keenspace is a pretty cool free webcomic host, by the way.
July 22: I've put up a single page with the whole Vampire Rancher storyline in one page. (That's 13 strips.)
July 16: I've archived all 82 of my old Bench strips here now! Thanks to Tycho and Gabe for being swell guys.
After the Vampire storyline wraps up, I'll be running more go comics. If you play go, perhaps I will see you at the Go Congress in Denver this August!
If you live near Austin (or want to visit), remember ArmadilloCon is coming up, August 18-20. It's Austin's annual sf con, with lots of sf authors, panels, art, music, gaming etc.