Another thing that happened while the blog was asleep: I joined Google Plus.

I don’t spend much time on social networks. My life is broken down roughly into a hierarchy of Work, Family, Food, Sleep, Friends, and Recreation and that last one usually involves family if possible. Also the first one takes up a huge part of each day.

Still, I’ve found my Twitter account useful for short bursts sent out to many people (about 230,000 followers as of this morning, though that seems to include more than my share of bots), and Facebook, well… you kinda have to have Facebook. So I do. But I’ve never been a fan.

Yesterday, I asked on all three a hypothetical question: If you had to get rid of either Google+ or Facebook forever, which would it be.

Despite being only a few weeks old, G+ users (in 142 responses, as of this morning) were nearly unanimous that they’d nuke FB without batting an eyelash. My Facebook fan page followers (my personal page is pretty small and hard to link to) offered 34 responses, with less enthusiasm, but mostly stood by the service. Twitter… well, take a look.

Google paid me to do the Chrome comic a few years ago, so I can’t ever claim to be 100% impartial, but the truth is I kinda love Google Plus so far, and will probably shift my attention there much more than Facebook as the service grows.

What little attention I can spare for these things anyway. Still have a book to draw!

Okay, we’ve moved apartments and gone to Comic-Con and back. Let’s get back to babbling about random comics news.

By far the coolest thing to happen in comics while I was on break these last few weeks was the debut of Derek Kirk Kim’s new video series Mythomania.

I have a cameo in the first episode but I’d be highly recommending these wonderful videos even if I wasn’t in it (oh Hell, especially if I wasn’t in it).

It’s a wonderful and funny portrait of aspiring young cartoonists so dead-on, it feels to me like I’ve known them for years.

Watch the first three episodes right now, and see if you don’t fall in love.

Thanks to everyone who came out to see us at Con, and to all our friends for filling our days with happy reunions and crazy conversations. It’s my family’s Thanksgiving (complete with the eating too much) and the year wouldn’t feel complete without it.

We’re moving apartments this month right before Comic-Con, so to devote as much time to drawing as I can, I’m taking a little vacation from blogging until after the big show (and the big move) is done.

I have two Comic-Con panels scheduled at this time:

Thursday, July 21, 3:30 – 4:30. True Stories. Panelists Chester Brown (Paying for It), Tom Devlin (Art Director of D&Q), Peter Kuper (Stop Forgetting to Remember), Leland Myrick (Feynman), and Thomas LeBien (Publisher of Hill & Wang’s Novel Graphics line) discuss the ins and outs of non-fiction graphic novel stories. What are the lines between truth and fiction when images are involved in a story? Moderated by Scott McCloud (Understanding Comics). Room 26AB

And…

Saturday, July 23, 11:00 – Noon. Will Eisner: Visionary. Will Eisner — artist, storyteller, entrepreneur — played a central role in comics from the Golden Age to the Computer Age. During his career, Eisner reinvented sequential art and himself to overcome obstacles and create new media. A combination of idealist and realist, he led the way and helped create the comics and graphic novels that we know today. Learn about Will Eisner from those who personally knew and worked with him. Join moderator Charles Brownstein (executive director of the CBLDF, author of Eisner/Miller), Denis Kitchen (artist, author, publisher, Eisner’s agent and longtime friend), Paul Levitz (writer, former president/publisher of DC Comics), Scott McCloud (artist, author, theoretician about comics and sequential art), Diana Schutz (executive editor, Dark Horse Comics), and Jeff Smith (writer/cartoonist, Bone, Rasl) to learn more about the “Father of the Graphic Novel.” Room 9

I’ll update this post as details become available including any new panels or signings.

And as always, I highly recommend Tom Spurgeon’s excellent Comic-Con Guide, especially if this is your first time.

Enjoy the month of July! Back to blogging July 26.

Happy 4th of July to all my, um… fellow Americans.

And happy just another day to the rest of the world!

Favorite comment this morning: “Thomas Jefferson” was a trending topic on Twitter, so Bill Corbett responded, “Did he die?!”

…but I’m grateful to be on the list.

I’m sure most of you have already seen both, but just in case, this and this are not to be missed (and are very different kinds of wonderful).

[via nearly Everybody]

Hans Rickheit just began serializing a new comic called Cochlea and Eustachia. Looks weird and fascinating. No surprise there!

He also recently contributed his distinctive line art to Paul Slade’s Attenborough-inspired story of insect horror Mother’s Day. Rickheit’s intricate art always seemed a bit insectoid to me, style-wise, so it’s a good match.

Rickheit had some financial problems lately and could always use a little help. It’s never been easy to push the boundaries of your chosen art form, but we should be grateful for those willing to do so.

The premiere mad scientist of webcomics Daniel Merlin Goodbrey has released a new comic for the Android Market called Jack’s Abstraction.

I’m in the iOS walled garden for now, so I can’t comment much beyond that, but if you’ve got an Android device, I’m sure it’ll be worth it (and hey, it’s free).

And for those of you who do read comics on Android devices, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the market’s potential.

Oh! And sort of on topic: It occurs to me that though I tweeted it while in Norway at EuroVis, I don’t think I linked from the blog to Google’s latest comics adventure, a fun little explanation of Google Correlate.

Darryl Cunningham continues his comics crusade to untangle lies, myths, and misconceptions with a new comic defending the science that’s grown from Darwin’s theory of natural selection. As usual, he does so with wit, charm, and quiet persistence.

I’ve considered doing something similar, maybe even a book length project, but these days I have trouble even thinking about this issue without getting pissed off and just wanting to smash my head against a wall. The idea that there are so many millions of people in this country who still believe the Earth is less than 10,000 years old is a national disgrace.

But a book filled with that wouldn’t convince anyone.

So thank you, Darryl Cunningham, for suffering fools gladly. You’re a better man than I am.

[Edit to add: Scott Dubois in comments points to this recent comics explanation of Evolution by the capable team of Hosler, Cannon, and Cannon. Looks good!]

Clifford Meth shares the details.

Gene Colan was one of my favorite artists in my early teen years, when I was first discovering comics.

The first full run of a comic book series that I read was Daredevil (lent to me by Kurt Busiek in middle school), including many issues drawn by Gene.

The first drawing I made of an established comic book character may well have been based on images he created for that series.

Gene Colan’s work was unique, personal, and always a joy to look at. May he rest in peace.