I don’t know how many of you guys have read Jonathan Rosenberg’s work in the past, but if you haven’t, you should.* For 13 years he has done the webcomic Goats, which has become a cult classic amongst its fans. The story kept growing and growing, starting with some slackers at a bar and now taking place amongst multiple universes with 13 years of back story.

Now Goats is a great comic with T-Shirts and books for sale, but Jon realized something recently: It wasn’t going to turn out like he planned. Goats as a property was never going to get to the levels of stability and income he needed, and he needed a new project. You can read a good interview with Jon and all that juiciness here. As of Monday, that project has launched.

It’s called Scenes from the Multiverse, and it’s a bunch of one-off strip-style comics taking place amongst amoebae, odd aliens, and tongue-like things.  By design it’s quick to jump into, and you can tell by reading Rosenberg is having a lot of fun with the change of pace.

So go check it out and show your support. Tell him Rosscott sent you.

Side note: I’m honored to say that when I met Jon (briefly at Webcomics Weekend last year and again at SPX) he actually had read The System. It’s always great to hear someone whom you respect respects you right back.

Couple weeks ago a guy named Lextrical asked me if he could write music based on one of my comics. It turns out he creates musical pieces based on illustrations and comics a lot. Why not, right?

So, based on The System 78, here is a quick track:

Caboodle by lextrical

He does these more often than I produce comics (in other words somewhere around every day) and they’re fun. So go check ’em out here.

He also has an album for sale (for as low as $0.00).

When one person sends me something, I strongly consider posting it. When 5 people do, I give in already. Thanks to all of you Systemics who sent it my way, it is a good read.

Written from the perspective of one of the most reviled typefaces, McSweeny has put together a manifesto of sorts from Comic Sans.

Listen up. I know the shit you’ve been saying behind my back. You think I’m stupid. You think I’m immature. You think I’m a malformed, pathetic excuse for a font. Well think again, nerdhole, because I’m Comic Sans, and I’m the best thing to happen to typography since Johannes fucking Gutenberg.

Very much worth a read. LINK »

Ever really look at the FedEx logo? Did you ever notice the arrow in between the E and the X? If not, have you had a graphic designer point it out to you at some point?

Either way, it’s there and it’s one of the more well known logos of our time, up there with Apple and IBM. The Sneeze interviewed the designer of the FedEx logo (Lindon Leader) a while back, and I stumbled across it recently. Makes for an interesting read and makes you realize just how much thought goes into just about everything around us. LINK »

Btw as a quick aside, have you read The Sneeze? It’s good. Poke around there. Especially good is this “How To Draw a Face” article.

Feel free to discuss the logo and your thoughts on the article here in the comments. Ever notice the arrow? Like looking at logos? Think Lindon Leader is a genius or was in the right place at the right time? DISCUSS.

It’s been entirely too long since I posted cool typography links here on the site, so here are two.

The Big Caption is a companion site to The Big Picture. They take whatever the latest “Big Picture” photos are, and add great (and often hilarious) captions to the image. There are some running themes throughout it’s so far short run, such as “Haters Gonna Hate” and “Hipsters Start Your Photocopiers”. All in all a great site that’s fun to look at. My favorite though is probably the most famous so far, “Fuck you, flowers”. Did I post that one before? I can’t remember. Well it’s awesome. LINK »

Music Philosophy is a link I found via my favorite music site, Aurgasm. They take music lyric quotes and make awesome poster-style images out of them. Here’s a clip from one about The Beatles from “We Can Work It Out”. Could you tell? Check out their site, it’s colorful and fun. LINK »

Finally, one piece of business before I wrap up this post. Does anyone actually read these posts? Click on the links? Enjoy what I’m posting? The blog segment has fallen by the wayside lately, and while I do it for my own enjoyment I’m curious if people enjoy it, miss it when it’s not here, etc. Even if you aren’t a frequent commenter on the site, drop me a line via a comment or however else you feel like and let me know if you read these posts. Or conversely, post and let me know if you don’t, though in a bit of a Catch-22 if you don’t you probably won’t read this to see that.

If you’re ever looking for something to do on the days when I don’t update, here are two comics worth checking out:

The Mighty Monkey-Men

My old friend Terry Biddle has been illustrating and drawing comics for a long time, but just recently posted his first online. The Mighty Monkey-Men, a 12-page story, has some really great art and a fun story. He says he’ll post more soon, so if you like it, post him a comment on his site and tell him you want more. I’m sure that’ll speed things along. LINK »

The Less Than Epic Adventures of TJ and Amal

Back when I used to be much more of a LiveJournal user, I would follow the work of E.K. (aka BigBigTruck). She was a great artist who would post some music mixes every once in a while. She frequently posted sketches from a comic she assured everyone she was working on, a road trip story about two guys named TJ and Amal. Comics and music, I could get behind that. After a while I lost track, probably around when I stopped using LJ so much.

Flash forward to earlier this week, when I see that she’s bid on the Project Wonderful advertising space on this here website. I was thrilled and immediately went through all 10 chapters of the comic currently available on her site, and downloaded every music mix I could find therein. The story is still mounting but the artwork is great and she clearly has this all worked out in her head. She has, after all, been writing this story for something like 5 damn years. Go check it out, tell her Ross sent ya. LINK »

A bunch of months back now, my girlfriend got us tickets to go see a documentary at the Silver Docs film fest called Winnebago Man. It was an amazing movie and I immediately told lots of people about it. The problem was this project was still touring festivals, and was not yet open to the public.

Flash forward to ROFLcon a few weeks ago, where they were having a showing of the movie as well as Q&A with the creators. I was at one of the nightly meet-ups telling people they should make sure to attend, and who taps me on the shoulder but one of the movie’s creators (I think it was Joel Heller, one of the Producers and of course one of the stars, Ben Steinbauer). We spent the next 20 minutes talking about the movie, some behind the scenes, ROFLcon and what-have-you, during which they mentioned the film would soon be released to a wider audience.

Here is that day, that post, and the trailer for the movie. The short premise is this: Ever see the viral video “Winnebago Man” featuring Jack Rebney, the Angriest Man In the World? If you haven’t, you should (there it is above). Some film makers tracked him down, informed him of his fame (it was news to him as the original vid was made a great many years ago) and became his friend, convincing him to meet some of his fans at the San Francisco Found Footage Festival. This is the story of both of them, viral videos, and the people who wind up in them. A complete and utter must see.

As BoingBoing was the first to write about the film, they now feature an exclusive trailer (seen below). You can read the article with more information here.

Having talked with the filmmakers, I can tell you that your interest directly helps them out. The more you read about them on BoingBoing, visit their official website and generally help them promote the project, the more likely it will make it to theatres outside of 3 or 4 major cities.

The best way to descripe this site is SomeECards meets graphic design. A great fun microsite from the people at Aquent. Oh, and the web address is http://www.iameffed.com/. LINK »

Two quick awesome typography links!

First from Systemic AmyC, who sends a link to a set of moustache brackets in a ton of different fonts. Above you see one row of many, but I had to show the Hoefler. It was just to classy.  Check it out and let me know which one is your favorite! LINK »

This one from Systemic Greg is a great ampersand eye chart. Check out all the other photos of the real poster (which you can order), it has some beautiful printing / pressing going on.  LINK »

(Photo courtesy Brian Slaski)

Since getting into the webcomics biz, I have had one friend the entire time that I could count on through it all. That man couldn’t be reached for comment, but it’s Jamie Noguchi’s birthday. Jamie is one of the unsung heroes of comics whose stuff you have undoubtedly run across.

He started drawing comics back in 2001 with a horrible comic called Titanium Moose. He’d kill me if I linked to it, but it comes up when you Google. It’s just amazing to see how far it’s come.

He spent two years as a professional colorist with Udon Entertainment collective, but left after rough hours and no chances to draw his own things made him seek other opportunities.

He was the awesomely amazing artist and half the team behind Erfworld, which under his time there was named one of Time Mazine’s top 10 graphic novels of 2007. Because he’s that awesome.  Again, he left this project as it was starting to become more about the rules of the world and less about the story he wanted to tell.

He’s worked on countless projects with and for other artists including Applegeeks, Goats, Johnny Wander, coloring a poster for Axe Cop, doing a guest comic for me, doing poster art for Peelander Z, and who knows how many others.

He runs more blogs than I know what do do with including his latest comic endeavor, an office comedy romance strip starring an annoyed asian graphic designer named Kane. It’s called Yellow Peril and you should be reading it Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

Oh, and after having helped him move a few years back, I can testify to the fact that he owns more little figurines and toys than anyone I know in his tiny-ass apartment.

The man is one of the unsung heroes of comics. I mean how many times do you have to be almost-famous until you’re making it happen full time (like I know he wants to do?) I feel for the guy. I really do. And on this, the anniversary of his birth, I invite you to check out the man’s work. Follow him up. Consider buying some of his things, or at least keeping your eyes out for the man. He’s going to be famous soon and you’ll want to be able to say you knew him when. SO GO READ HIS COMIC NOW.

Happy birthday, Jamie Noguchi. Go get that shit.