Groban was essentially leaking Gen Con tales for a week when he came back, or sweating them maybe; they beaded on his irregular surface. One of them was about an encounter with Margaret Weis. I should say that he had an encounter, perhaps. Judging from the particulars of his account, it's entirely possible that Margaret Weis - who must be considered fantasy royalty - had no perceptible encounter of any kind.

It's already the 15th there, and it's like two in morning as I post this, but I wanted to get one last reminder up. Tickets! Savings! We have both, condensed into a single link. See you in a couple months!

Lincoln City Oregon has been my family's vacation spot for almost as long as I can remember. I have been coming out here since I was pretty little and now I am bringing my kids out here. I drew yesterday's comic strip while I was here and it reminded me of another comic from Lincoln City. This comic from 17 years ago is another Kara and Gabe on the Oregon coast strip and it's fun to look at the difference between the two.

Celebrate with Dabe's different bird, non-infringing, game independent garment today!

We left Tycho out of the strip on Wednesdsay so he could continue to suffer at the hands of the not-men who serve Ursus Malus, who is called The Eternal Bear. I'm pretty sure this is our last excursion into this place, but you never know with these fuckin' bear cults.

Two PAX Aus notes:

No Man's Sky is one of those personality test type games. I keep reading articles about how No Man's Sky wasn't the game they expected, but I never knew what to expect from it because it's not like there was a ton of information. I mean, on purpose, obviously. You can't map a game about exploration before people have a chance to get in there. My best moment so far was walking into a mystical-ass cave and melting down with my mining laser what must have been, like, five tons of fucking gold.

In the manner of an extended Goku montage, I need to build my writing strength so that I am prepared for the challenges ahead, which may or may not revolve around engaging in literary battles with alien lords or devil gods. That's what I'm hoping. Optimally I'll be able to stand in an open plain, gaze beyond the sky, and exhort them to face me.

This is my first time at a Gen Con and like Tycho mentioned, I am having a blast! Thornwatch is being demoed in the Lone Shark booth all day and the feedback I've gotten is super positive.

Do you want to know what's happening at PAX Dev on a daily or indeed hourly basis? Well, I have what you need.

I'm getting a lot of invigorated texts from Mike Krahulik, who, having stolen my birthright, is now delighting himself in halls reserved for heroes. He is currently marveling at its vasty size and at its alien ways. We go to a very specific convention now, a single convention that spans time and space, and whose apertures open and close according to an ancient calendar. There is a lot we don't know about your Gens and/or Cons.

Early Bird pricing for the show ends August 15th, after which it increases Five Dollars for both individual Day Passes and the Three Day. So, grab tickets today. Originally I typed "grab ticklets," but don't grab those, because they aren't real. Get tickets instead. We will not be accepting ticklets at the door.

It may be true that I did not explicitly mention any of the crucial data that would have created an informed comic strip BUT so much of communication is about the negative space and I'd think that as an artist or whatever you would understand that. Absence is presence. I heard that somewhere, and I knew it would annoy you.

I hope things are going well back at the office. I am sitting in the airport in Minneapolis right now, next stop Gen Con!

I realized something very important when I got the art back from this strip, which is that I hadn't like one hundred percent told him what I was going for with the Horses. I can tell you, though.

There's a few conventions I've been meaning to get to; I think I've said I was going to MAGFest a few times. I will someday. People seem to bloom when they talk about it, and I'd like to get some of that. But for years and years, Gen Con essentially defined what a convention was even though I'd never been to it and had no real way of learning about it, because it was just a picture I'd seen in a magazine. It wasn't simply an exemplar of the form, it was the entirety of the concept, moated between two deep parentheses.