There is only the joke. There is no joke.

Super Art Fight Kickstarter’s Final Days!

We are wrapping up on our Super Art Fight book Kickstarter, and can still use your help! While we have met our goal (thank you so much) we are still looking to make the book bigger and better, and are close to our next stretch goal. If we can raise another (as of this posting) $444 we will be adding an amazing comic about a prehistoric Super Art Fight to the book courtesy of Michael Bracco. You can learn more about it here.

Thank You Awesome Con DC

Thanks to everyone who came to Awesome Con. It was by far the one of the best cons I have ever been to, which is the highest praise I can possibly give to a convention that did not exist before this year. Oh, and it was less than 2 miles from my house, which also made it the most convenient convention I have ever been to. We did our amazing Super Art Fight on Saturday to a completely packed room. I’m finding YouTube vids of it and will post separately in the next few days.

For a little behind the scenes, sales were amazing. The best I’ve ever had at a convention. I had to run home on Saturday after the dealer room closed and bring back more prints and shirts to sell, because I had run out of everything. On top of that the fact that it was so close to home and I didn’t have to pay for a hotel or anything, it was flat out amazing.

I’ll write up more about the show soon, but thank you again to all who came out! As I always like to say, it’s great to put a commenter-name or site visit number to some faces. It’s heartwarming to know real people out there read this nonsense. Thank you.

More Shirts Soon

Keep your eyes peeled to the site because I’m going to be reordering a bunch of shirts that I am now out of over in the HilariAwesome.com store. If you want a women’s shirt in any size, I don’t keep them in stock but am happy to order them for you. Just email me at systemcomic at gmail dotcom with which one you would like and what size and we’ll take it from there.

This comic, co-written by my mom (Rossmom) in the comments of The System 626. You can see where I get “it” from.

And I’m just gonna leave this here…

This should be a term.

Sorry for the delays in posts, guys! I want to give you a little insight into what’s going on behind the scenes, and the truth is I don’t know if it’s that interesting, but here you go:

So for the last few months I’ve been “funemployed” or “freelancing” (depending on your attitude) and figuring out what to do next. Don’t feel bad for me, I’ve actually turned down a few jobs. I’m trying to be very careful and figure out something that’s really great and fitting. Meanwhile, I’ve been freelancing full-time and working out of a coworking space here in DC, and paying rent and then some (not much more, but some) in the process. I’m working on some design projects I’m pretty proud of, and hopefully I’ll be able to refurbish my portfolio and shoot for something much better soon. Along the way, I started combining some freelance work with my friend Geoff, and the two of us have been talking about the idea of starting our own little firm.

This, along with a girlfriend that I’m trying to keep, as well as Super Art Fight, has kept me more than busy. Having a webcomic could fill all my time. Starting a business and freelancing could as well. All that and trying not to go crazy has left the comics a little on the back burner, but it’s always in my mind. So for now, updates will be intended M/W/F, but I might miss more than a few. If it starts to get gratuitous, I’ll try to work something out or let you know. In the meantime, I’m inviting others to help. Ask Rossmom will be updating again (today most likely) and some more news posts will hopefully fill the space a bit. I’m always on the lookout for guest comics as well, but I’ll be honest, I’m picky and won’t guarantee I’ll post them all.

Like numbers 500, 400, 300, 200 and 100, another recap of what we’ve learned in the last 100 comics. I enjoy putting these together, but they do take quite a while. All the panels are from comics from the last 100 comics. Can you name where all of them are from?

Also, we have something else to celebrate! We also recently passed the four-year anniversary of the comic as well. 400 comics! That’s pretty good, right? That officially makes The System my longest-held job / relationship.

<I’ll insert more words about what it’s like to do 600 comics here soon.>

Anyway, if you want to help me celebrate, there’s a few things you can do:

• Share your favorite comics from the archive with friends.
• Comment on posts.
• Buy prints of any comics you like from HilariAwesome.com, our online store.
• Buy shirts from HilariAwesome.com, our online store.
• GET READY to give me more money, because I’m going to be launching a Kickstarter for The System Book 1 in a few weeks. As soon as the book is mostly built and I have a quote for the number of books, it’ll all come together. Stay tuned!

Now available, a new shirt! It’s in preorder, so it’s cheaper now to get it than it will ever be ($15 plus shipping). The only catch is you have to wait until they’re printed, BUT it’s the only time I’ll carry women’s shirt sizes for just about forever. Check it out here or click the image blow:

I saw this twice today, people “liking” posts where the post was bad news. Did they really like the bad news? No, they were merely showing support through a “like”. Sounds to me like we should change them from “like” to “approve” or “support”, because that’s what you’re really doing anyway. In real life, when someone says “I think we should get pizza”, you don’t say “like”. No, you agree. Do that. Just agree.

Have any funny (or sad) Facebook stories? Share them in the comments! I’m reading, and as always so is Rossmom.

This was fact-checked thanks to my good friends Spike Jetpack Solomon, Steven Motocross Fluffybutt, Riley Day, and Delilah Whatshername. Yes, they’re all cats. And, while adorable, they don’t give a f*%k about you.

Clearly I now need to make a t-shirt with an adorable cat on it that says “I DON’T CARE IF YOU LIVE OR DIE.” I may just do that.

Speaking of cats, if you like cats on t-shirts, you may want to check out Professor Internet.

UPDATE: Thanks to everyone for sharing the chart! You can vote for it on Reddit here (please do!), I would LOVE to see it again on BoingBoing, if someone sends me a Submitterator post I’ll add it here as well. If there’s anywhere else you share it to, please let me know!

After months of discussion and planning, Caldwell and myself, creators of the “So you found something cool on the Internet…” chart on giving credit where credit is due, are proud to present this followup, all about Internet arguments.

I think we’ve all seen it before, the argument online that gets out of hand. Our message is simple, the minute you engage you probably should have walked away. So don’t get angry, just chill the fuck out and eat a sandwich. I mean look at Professor Internet. He seems like a smart cat. Better listen to him.

UPDATE UPDATE: There has been some interesting (and some infuriating) discussion and comments generated by this comic both here on the site and in places it’s been posted, and there’s one point that I (Rosscott) wanted to touch on. I wrote most of this to respond to a well-reasoned comment by “Unimpressed” and wanted to post it here as well (I rewrote it slightly now that I’ve gotten some sleep):

There’s a distinct difference between a discussion and an argument. We’re focusing much more on the lighter side, clearly. There are people out there who have conflicting opinions and who can benefit from serious debate. By and large the people who engage in “discussion” (especially in many popular forums on the Internet) are really just interested in saying what they want, not listening what you have to say.

This chart is meant as humor and hyperbole. But notice, according to the chart, reading through the whole story and saying your piece is much “higher” on the list than being an insulting jerk who flies off the handle and doesn’t know what exactly they are talking about and what they are commenting on, so even within this chart we implore people to actually know what they are talking about before commenting.

People are allowed to agree or disagree, and discourse is how people form opinions and are introduced to new ideas. But there are times to discuss and times to argue, and those arguments are times where that energy is better spent eating a sandwich.

If you’re interested, we’re selling 11×17 prints of this chart (slightly rearranged to fit better on a poster) over at my online store, HilariAwesome.com. Go check it out! And if you want any other shirts / stickers / merch based on it, we’re listening!

Oh, and now shirts! Available for sale (in preorder until 8/12) here:

I’ve always wondered about self-referential things like this. Web sites about how to make web sites. Television shows about TV. Blogs about other blogs. And yeah, go cats.

Stay tuned, later today I’m posting a really long thing about web design and webcomics. Today’s the day.

Anyone else share my hatred for this link fodder? Post your favorite / least favorite such articles in the comments.

Katsucon this weekend! Come see me in Artist Alley, and come to Super Art Fight on Saturday at 3pm!