Hello, everyone! I'm sitting in SFO airport, where I'll remain until 10:30 tonight. I had a really great time at Wondercon this weekend!

Yesterday (Sunday) was my birthday. I turned 32! It was a weird birthday for me, what with me being at a convention instead of lounging around at home taking it easy. Not that most of my days are grueling fights to the finish anyway, being a webcartoonist, but you know what I mean. I was a little apprehensive blowing my birthday weekend at a convention since my birthdays have a Routine. They've always had a Routine. They're not a difficult Routine, I mean, they usually involve leaving the house for Taco Bell at some point, watching a movie I like, and drawing a comic, all things I enjoy. Even back when I had a Real Job, I had a semblance of the Routine, albeit smooshed into a smaller portion of the day. But this year I wouldn't have the Routine! I would be "stuck" behind a table in a strange city far away from my home.

This was a good idea! It was a very different birthday. I got to spend it with a very, very different group than I would have otherwise, like the Blind Ferret folks, Kel McDonald, Becky and Frank, Matt Boyd, Alina Pete, George Rohac... the list goes on. And since this was one of a half-dozen weekends of the year in which I am inexplicably a celebrity, it was really amazing. Folks kept on throwing cookies and cakes at me. I amassed so many baked goods that I still have some stuffed inside my backpack on my way home.

The only sore spot is that my wife wasn't here! She did happily end up on the phone with me on Saturday night when I got sung "Happy Birthday" to for the first time, which was incredibly fortunate, but she wasn't with me, which bothered me. We've only lived together for a few years! She was not yet a firmly established part of the Routine. I kind of want her to be part of the Routine forever. This was a misstep.

But enough of my #FirstWorldProblems. Since I had an extra day to goof around (I booked my flight waaaaay too late to get out of San Francisco at a reasonable time), I made sure to walk around the city for hours and hours and take lots of photos so I can use them as reference in the strip. After doing Dumbing of Age for over half a year (is that right? Over half a year? My brain is probably fried, so please check my math), I've grown a passion for making the environments more real. So look for that. I might even put my characters outside sometimes! Oh my God!

And look for a new character soon. That is all.

Shortpacked!@TNI: Comparing notes
Shortpacked!: I'm a few weeks ahead, and so I kinda forget which one today's is.

Hey, you folks who are in the Transformers Collectors' Club.  On Friday, they finally put Punch/Counterpunch and Shattered Glass Cyclonus up for preorder, and they've already sold through 80% of P/CP and half of Cyclonus.  So if you want either of those guys, hop to it!  They'll probably be gone by tomorrow.  And I hope you like paying a lot for shipping.

EDIT: Aaaaaaaaand now he's gone.  FP is looking into whether they can increase their order last-minute. Still some Cyclonus, though.

(I get asked this a lot, and, yeah, I do believe they charge you right up front instead of in a few months when they arrive.)

Also, after some prodding from a few of you, I put up preorders for a Butt-Taco shirt.  But so far I've gotten... *drumroll* ... one preorder!  Yeah.  If I don't get a handful more by Tuesday, I'm gonna refund that dude his money and consider this a lesson in putting cartoon butts and/or tacos on shirts.

This Saturday is my birthday and Thursday is my roommate Steve-o's birthday, and due to scheduling conflicts, we ended up celebrating it last Friday!  And, woo, presents!   My buddy Ron got me a knockoff Hot Shot in awesome rally deco, Maggie, Steve-o, and Maggie's parents conspired to get me a new bike to replace the one that was stolen last year, and Graham got me the Toys"R"Us-exclusive Skeletor vs Lex Luthor two-pack.

Skeletor is my first MOTU "Classics" toy.  I have the old 2002 Skeletor, which I thought had more fun with the design than this guy, so I didn't throw $30-including-shipping at the new one.  But, dude, this one comes with Lex Luthor in Power Armor, a personal love of mine.  And I don't have him.  And it comes with a friggin' comic book.  And it's at a normal retail price.  So I was planning on picking these guys up when I saw them.  And in a rare moment of lack-of-toy-clairvoyance, I didn't even realize these dudes were out in Toys"R"Uses yet.  So, woo, great present.


These DC/MOTU teamup packs are loosely based on the original Superman/He-Man crossover that DC Comics published back in the day.  Mind, that only involved Superman on the DC side, and Lex Luthor is no where to be seen, so this two-pack is just a happy extrapolation.  If ONLY Lex Luthor teamed up with Skeletor.  The comic is some pure early-80s awesomeness.  It's drawn by Curt Swan, has some delicious comic-booky prose, and features Pimp Daddy Prince Adam.  I'm serious!  He's introduced with a hotty on each arm.  He's a slutty playboy.  And no pink and lavender tights.  (They're blue.)  It's the straightest He-Man has ever been!  And the issue ends with He-Man stabbing Skeletor.  Score!

The toys themselves are also pleasing.  Both are your typical modern-day 6" Mattel figure, articulation-wise.  Skeletor I would guess is missing some paint applications from the online-only release, possibly to more-closely match the comic book colors.  (If this was indeed the intent, I really wish they would have painted on the dark blue gloves they gave him in the issue.)  Skeletor comes with only his sword.  It stows on his back.

Lex Luthor is based on his Super Powers design!  He's the Lex Luthor I remember as a kid.  This means he's the Silver Age mad scientist Luthor, before he was revamped as an evil businessman, and the profile on the back matches.  (ha ha ha ha ha he hates Superman because he made him bald)  Weirdly, the art of him on the back is the Ed McGuinness power suit design, which is the modern Luthor.  Nerds notice these things.  The toy, again, is articulated everywhere you'd expect, though is limited by its design.  He can't move his arms up because of his big green shoulder chunks and his peripheral vision is pretty damn limited by the half-dome around his head.

He comes with four different kinds of Kryptonite.  Between the two toys in the pack, there's enough hands to hold them all, which is basically where this week's TNI strip was birthed from.