Moms! Always telling you to leave your jaeger rifle at home.

This week’s news is that dylanmeconis.com has gotten a total overhaul! Tons of art that my readers haven’t seen, all of my short comics from the last several years, general niceness, the blog in a place where humans can find it, etc.

If you’re tired of popping around every social network ever to check in on my doings, or you’ve been looking for a way to introduce somebody to my work, this should do the trick!

As usual, I trust my readers to be my beta-testers…if you find something on the site that needs fixing, please send me a line.

In the meantime, enjoy.

The ancient Romans didn’t really have a tidy word for “2.5″ so they usually said “sestertius” (“half three”) because 2.5 is exactly halfway between the numerals two and three. A bit of a funny way to go about it, but that’s where we get the word sestercentennial which means “250th anniversary.” This comic certainly isn’t 250 years old, but it is now 250 pages long! Crazy.

Thank you to all who visited me at the Stumptown Comics Fest. The highlight for me was a panel on historical fiction in comics. Somebody has me down as saying “In terms of worldbuilding, I mean…the 18th century is just lying there, for free!” Which I think sums things up nicely, though not as well as my favorite stanza from Walt Whitman’s poem ‘To Think of Time” -

To think that the sun rose in the east! that men and women were flexible, real, alive! that everything was alive!
To think that you and I did not see, feel, think, nor bear our part!
To think that we are now here, and bear our part!

It gives me chills every time, and that is how I find myself 250 pages into the 18th century. Thanks for following along!

I realize the plot’s pretty thick already, but I’m just throwin’ some more cornstarch in there.

News! We’re closing in on the Stumptown Comics Fest at the Oregon Convention Center here in Portland, where I’ll be exhibiting and appearing on two panels. On the Thursday night before the Fest (4/26), I’ll also be making a Special Guest Appearance at the April edition of Comics Underground, providing some voices for a reading by studiomate (and fellow Eisner nominee) Jonathan Case from his wonderful book Dear Creature. It is going to be silly and excellent.

And, at the fest, I’ll be debuting my first-ever screen print design, hand-pulled by Erika. I am super-excited to have a Fancy Thing – I’ll post a teaser image on Tumblr after this weekend.

And, new in the store is a print of my illustration for the 2012 Monsters and Dames book, featuring Ariadne and the Minotaur passin’ some spare time in the labyrinth. Get ‘em while they last!

And I am back! My poor cranky arm is very grateful for the time off. Thanks for your patience, all. With some continued gentle treatment it should be back to 100% before long.

Preparations begin for the Stumptown Comics Fest here in Portland! Hometown shows are the best, and it looks like I’ll be on a couple of panels. (Hey, my first show as an Eisner nominee! That’s kinda boss.)

Then at the end of May I’ll be journeying up to Vancouver B.C. for the first-ever VanCAF. I’m excited to have another West coast show and an excuse for my lovely Northwestern Canuck readers to avoid paying international postage. Plus, the ready availability of honey-dip Timbits.

Lastly, it’s finally spring here. I got a little overexcited and made my (first ever) dippy li’l animation. It is of me, smacking my face into a tulip. The muse of poetry comes to each in her own way, I guess. See below the cut!

But, the good news: my short comic from last year, Outfoxed, has been (very unexpectedly) nominated for an Eisner Award in the Digital category! The Eisners are are pretty much the top, and I feel very starstruck to find myself onto the ballot. If you work in the comics industry, go forth and cast your vote at www.eisnervote.com!

For those of you who might have missed Outfoxed when I released it this past fall, you can find the whole story online here.

And, lastly, there’s a new print AND a new sticker for sale in the Store!

But there is no real rest for the wicked, because this weekend I’ll be very busy tabling at the Emerald City Comicon in Seattle! Come find me at Booth 223, where I’ll be installed with Erika Moen and Jonathan Case and Katie Lane, selling books, pendants, prints (including the Ariana image that’s standing in for this week’s page…), shirts, stickers, and more.

And, Portlanders not visiting our Northern neighbor: pick up a copy of the Portland Mercury this week, and you’ll see a 2-page comics feature by yours truly.