Blitz the Comic Guy

So, first off, I’ve decided to use this site as sort of a central announcement hub for the moment, at least while the Far Out There and Conventional Wisdom ones are still in a temporal confusion.  I don’t want important current news getting lost in a flood of archival reposts.  So if you don’t wanna keep an eye on Twitter or Facebook (Far Out There / Conventional Wisdom) or Instagram (Far Out There / Conventional Wisdom) or Tumblr (Far Out There / Conventional Wisdom), just keep checking back here.

Anyway, the news: earlier this month, I was putting out a call for help regarding MAGFest.  It’s been a Conventional Wisdom staple since 2012, and I really wanted to make an exception to my new “local cons only” rule for it… but the whole reason I HAVE that new policy is because it’s getting more and more expensive to get a room at big, out of state conventions.  And with the National Harbor’s isolated location, limited hotels, and lack of parking space, MAGFest is at the top of the list of events it’s just too difficult to get to anymore.  I was still gonna give it a shot though, because it’s such a good time once you DO get there… aaaaaand then this whole website kerfuffle sprang up out of nowhere.  All this site hosting and name registration and domain transfer stuff ain’t cheep, and I basically had to blow all the cash I’d been saving up for a MAGtrip to get this stuff set up.  Long story short, there’s simply no way I can justify the expense of going to MAGFest this year.  Sorry to anybody who was looking forward to new comics, but it’s really beyond my control at this point.

I do wanna thank the people to tried to help out, though, because I actually DID get some generous offers.  Alas, no amount of generosity could get around the practical realities of booking a room at the Gaylord, and I simply can justify the cost on top of all these other expenses (I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: this would all be SO MUCH EASIER if the National Harbor just had more bus/subway access so people could get cheaper hotels off-site and not have to pay the equivalent of a second room for parking).  We’ll see about next year, hopefully the dust will have settled enough for me to work something out.

BUT THERE IS A SILVER LINING!  Clearing the schedule of MAGFest DOES mean that, for the first time since 2016, I’ll be making a return to Ichibancon!  I’d had to drop that from the schedule since it’s always so close to MAGFest, and I’m too old to do ANY two cons in the same month anymore, let alone if one of them is MAGFest.  Better yet, though, Ichi will be a much, much, MUCH cheaper weekend than MAG, and that’s obviously of chief importance right now.  So see you in Concord!

Finally, some housekeeping about the new Conventional Wisdom site:  First off, due to all the site shenanigans, I’ve fallen WAY behind on finishing the NC Comicon 2019 comics.  There’s a very real chance I won’t get the rest of them finished before Ichi.  Ichibancon 2020 comics will be coming eventually, though.  Just don’t be weirded out if a few NC Comicon pages are still trickling out after Ichi weekend’s over and done with (I’ll still be posting new pictures and stuff on all the social medias if you need something Ichibancon-related right away)  But that brings me to the most website-related thing: at the moment the home page is still that “moving in” post, but there ARE some comics already ported over.  I’ve got the currently finished pages for NC Comicon 2019, and also Otakon 2008.  That’s… a bit of a gap, obviously.  The plan is to approach site updates from two directions.  I’ll keep posting new stuff, and reset the site to display new newest page as it goes up, but I’ll also be re-posting old updates in big chunks behind them.  I have absolutely no idea how long this process will take, but hopefully it’ll allow for a steady stream of new content without having to wait for the old stuff to get caught up.  So if you’ve wondering where the rest of the old comics are, well, they’re all still on SmackJeeves, but they’ll be slowing making their way over here one chunk at a time.  I’ll put out an update on the social media machine every time an old update gets reposted, just in case you wanna take a trip down memory lane (and read some new “what was I thinking back then?” comments from present day me!)

Oh, and as always, if you feel especially bad about the whole “not able to afford MAGFest” thing, you can always back me on Patreon!