A whiles back I posted on the site about how I was fortunate enough to be chosen as a panelist for the SXSW Interactive Festival, and hence will be attending the nerd-fest in Austin, TX next week. This is something that you Systemics made happen! So thanks to you!

For those of you that don’t know about SXSW, it’s a 3-part festival: music, film, and interactive. I have yet to go to the music portion, but the film and interactive sessions are always pretty amazing. Any chance to be around like-minded people and nerd out is generally appreciated.

If you’ll be there, a few recommendations if I may:

• My panel, of course! Me and other funny people talking about pairing words with images. Tuesday the 15th. BE THERE.
• I’m donating a rather large poster of the “See Something? Cite Something.” comic/chart/poster/thingy to a charity silent auction, which will be featured in the Beacon Lounge. The lounge is a great place to hang out between sessions and I’ll be there admiring my own handiwork and trying to mooch of the free food and drink that comes in and out of that room.
• Check out Lanyrd.com’s version of the SXSW schedule. It lets you see which of your Twitter followers are going to be there, which helps you track down friends easily.
• There’s this whole new “SXSW Comedy” portion this year that looks amazing. Mostly looking forward to the live recording of the Nerdist Podcast but all the rest of it looks great too. You listen to the Nerdist Podcast, right?
• See, it’s not all stuff I’m doing! But here’s another thing I’m doing. It’s called 20×2 and it’s asking 20 speakers to answer questions in 2 minutes. This topic is “Why Did You Do It?”, which should be interesting as the “it” is left pretty open. Also speaking there is fellow panelist Drew Dernavich. It’s on Monday the 14th. BE THERE.

If you’re going to be there, leave a message in the comments! Got a panel you’re helping put on, a party you think is worth it, etc? Leave word! I’m not a big enough presence to arrange a whole “Systemcics Meetup” but I would like to meet up with those of you that are going to be there. Let me know in the comments or via Twitter!

There’s also some way where I can post the things I’m thinking of going to so you guys can see it? I’m working on filling that out and sharing it. It’ll replace this paragraph once that’s up.

A while back, I asked my fellow Systemics to vote for a SXSW panel that if picked, I would be a part of. Well this should come as no surprise based on the title of the post, but that panel got picked! Thanks to all of you who were kind enough to vote for the panel and leave comments! It clearly helped and made it possible. Here’s the skivvy:

Your Caption Here: How-to Manipulate Images Without Photoshop

Organized by: Austin Kleon

We all know how easy it is to doctor an image with Photoshop, but there’s an even easier and low-tech way to alter an image’s meaning: just change the caption. It turns out that pictures can say whatever we want them to say, provided we use the right words. In this session, we’ll get the lowdown from a panel of bloggers and cartoonists who have elevated captioning to a brilliant, often hilarious art form. We’ll learn why the old writing adage “Show don’t tell” is useless, and how a picture might be worth a thousand words, but when it’s paired with a caption that deepens, expands, or redefines its meaning, it can be worth a million.

Panelists include:

• Jessica Hagy, freelance copywriter and creator/author of Indexed: http://www.thisisindexed.com
• Drew Dernavich, cartoonist at the New Yorker: http://www.drewdernavich.com/
• Maris Kreizman, blogger at Slaughterhouse 90210 and audiobooks editor at Emusic: http://slaughterhouse90210.tumblr.com
• Rosscott Nover, web designer and cartoonist, creator of webcomic The System: http://www.notquitewrong.com/rosscottinc/

On a personal note, this means I’ll definitely be at SXSW Interactive this year in Austin, TX and will probably be extending the trip to see some of the Film and Music portions as well. If you’ll be there or are in the area, leave a comment!

On a slightly larger note, this one of only a few comic or webcomic-related SXSW panel I have heard about so car this year, and I’m excited to be representing that community in this classy and professional setting. Then I plan on drinking a lot.

Thanks again Systemics, for helping to make this happen!

Connecticon! What a blast! What a show! What an experience! What a way to spend a weekend! If you want to see some pics I took during the weekend, check them out here.

This is a long post, so see the rest after the cut…

↓ Read the rest of this entry…

I was contacted by Glory of “I Hate My 9 to 5” to be on an interesting panel. The date snuck up on me, but it’s this Thursday!  It’s a panel discussion with a bunch of other DC bloggers, discussing what it’s like to balance a job with all the stupid crap stirring intellectual pursuits we do online. Should be interesting! More details here »

While Glory and her team would like you to RSVP to her (and you should), drop a line in the comments if you can make it!

No word on recording, but if it gets recorded and posted I will link to it for sure.

Howdy, Systemics. Specifically those in the MD / DC / VA area.

For those expecting to see me at Balticon in Hunt Valley, MD this weekend, some bad news. I won’t be able to make it this weekend after all. For those hoping to see me there, I’m sorry to do this, especially at the last minute. There are still plenty of great reasons to attend, like a great lineup of Webcomic artists and some good friends. Unfortunately, you’ll have to buy their merch and attend their panels instead of mine.

More updates on upcoming merch, contests, upcoming events and appearances, and whatever else I can think of soon.

Hey Systemics! How many of you are in the tri-state area? Come to Wild Pig Con this weekend! I’m going to be joining my Super Art Fight crew for an amazing show at 4pm on Saturday, but there will also be tables to buy and meet people such as myself and a ton of comic friends including:

• Ami from Glass Urchin
• Danielle from Girls with Slingshots
• Joe (and I’m hoping the rest of his gang) from Digital Pimp / Joe Loves Crappy Movies
• Dern from Hello With Cheese
• Kev and Blondie from Caf-Fiends
• Caldwell Loldwell Tanner
• James from In His Likeness

and a bunch of others that, while worthy of your time, are not people I’ve met and can claim to know. But they’ll be there too. Here’s the guest list.

Details? Oh, okay.

WHEN: Saturday, May 15th from noon to 8 PM, and Sunday, May 16th from 10 AM to 5 PM

WHERE: The Springfield Holiday Inn on Route 22 West in Springfield, NJ.

HOW MUCH: Only $5 to get in. That’s really cheap!

Here’s their website for any more info. Let me know in the comments if you plan on attending! Mention the secret phrase when you come by my table and I’ll give you FREE STUFF. What’s the secret phrase you say?

Jimmy is out to get me.

What’s the free stuff? You’ll have to come by the table and find out. Also, a special guest! RossMom from the comments (yknow, my mother) will be coming by too. See her and me and my dad too! See you this weekend!

Picture courtesy Staeiou

A little over a week ago I had the chance to travel as part of Super Art Fight to ROFLcon as a guest. A guest at M.I.T., mind you! It was a great time and we had a great show. Thanks SO MUCH to Tim, Rachel, George (who owes me a $*&@ pen!) and the rest of the awesome ROFLcon people who helped bring us out and make that happen. For those that are interested, lots of little things have bubbled to the surface since, so here’s a quick roundup.

There’s a great writeup of what SAF is like over at GeekingOutAbout. LINK »

While we weren’t interviewed by Attack of the Show, they did most of their filming in the room we were selling merch. If you squint, you can almost make out me standing at our table with Jamie Noguchi trying to shill wares and get people to go to our show. You can watch the whole video here, but here’s a screen shot of what I’m talking about:

If you want to watch our actual show at ROFLcon, it will eventually be up on Archive.org. In the meantime, some diligent SAF fans recorded and posted most of the show in both photos and video. Photos are all on Flickr under the superartfight tag, and here’s a video of the ENTIRE SHOW (via the awesome Kurteng):

The trip was definitely an amazing one for Super Art Fight and The System, though it can be a little tricky to wear both hats at an event like this.

Luckily we had the show to do which went very well for all those involved. We had the honor and privelage to host more than our normal share of guest stars this time out including SAF roster regulars Chris Impink, Jamie Noguchi, Yuko Ota and Jamie Baldwin as well as newcomers to the canvas Zach Wiener, Tak Toyoshima and guest commentator extraordinaire Kris Straub. I’ll be honest, I love having SAF as a chance to talk to and work with other artists whose work I respect and enjoy. Sometimes, it even leads to other shows and projects, but more on that another time…

If you want more than this, Marty (and sometimes me but mostly Marty) keep all this sort of info about our Super Art Fight things over at SuperArtFight.com, which is the real place to keep up with all our upcoming shows and the like. You should go there and sign up for updates.

Anyway, hope you like the roundup! These things take me forever to write so if you enjoy reading it (or don’t), be honest and let me know in the comments.

I’m honored to be a guest speaker at the Day in the Life Design Conference this Saturday, April 24, at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). The talk, Designer and the Community, will focus 95% on my day-job work at Free Range Studios, but also include tidbits from The System and my exploits fighting crime.

This is my first public design conference-type talk, so it is bound to be momentous one way or another. Here’s their writeup on me.

It’s not cheap, with student tickets starting at $85 for the day (though by design conference standards that’s pretty cheap and includes food and drink), but the lineup of talks and speakers looks damn interesting. Ellen “Thinking with Type” Lupton will be speaking for one. Hope I can sell her a HELL Vetica shirt.

Post in the comments if you’re planning on attending! My session is in the morning, so come early. If you can’t make it, check out the Super Art Fight event also in the area at CHS Otaku Fest that day.

Still here in Austin, TX with a quick update. While there are not any official webcomic panels or events, I have managed to meet up with Rob and Kris from Explosm / Cyanide and Happiness who have been great to bum around with. Currently we’re all huddled around a table at a bar working on our respective comics, drinking beers (because that’s how we roll). Seriously, why aren’t more bars conducive to this sort of thing?

Anyway, SXSW has been fun (as you might imagine). Of course the other big news is that the infamous “Beard Shirt” has finally launched, and will be in preorder for a short while at a lower price. MORE INFO HERE »

Until next time, Systemics.

Yes, I know most of you are sick of hearing about it, but here is some insight into the SXSW Interactive Experience. I’ll post more of an update here soon, but for now this is about what I’m seeing. Of course, this is what I’m doing right now as well so who am I to talk.

UPDATE: I wound up on TWiT live for about 30 seconds during the DiggNation party the other night. I went up to Leo Laporte to thank him for linking to the Singletasking comic. Of course, I was in the middle of trying to get some friends into the party, but wanted to say a quick hello. This is when he turned the camera on me for a quick interview. I was off my game, and therefore only mentioned the web address twice. It was a live feed, but some amazing Systemics managed to swoop in and got some screen shots. PICS THAT IT HAPPENED. If anyone can find a video feed of this freakish occurance, please do let me know.