Oobla-dey-dah-o!  It's guest week at Dave Kellet's Sheldon with Kris Straub and today David Malki! taking the reins so far.

NYTimes.com has a story on 94 year old Joe Simon who will be at this weekend's NYCC.  Simon created Captain America with Jack "King" Kirby at Timely (precursor to Marvel) and then created scores more characters at DC:

Mr. Simon may not be involved in monthly comics, but he’s still drawing. In September 2001 he recreated the cover of Captain America Comics No. 1, but substituted Osama bin Laden for Hitler. “I did it out of anger,” he said. “Adolf got his. Osama will too.”  When he heard from friends at Marvel that Captain America might be murdered in 2007, Mr. Simon grabbed his brush. The result was a “Last Supper” painting of the captain and 12 fellow champions at a table surrounded by junk food.

If you're going to Otakon 2008 and willing to share your experience with webcomics (especially getting 'em online and getting 'em promoted), then Comic Genesis' Kelly "STrRedWolf" Price needs you!  He's forming an "Webcomics 102 (Getting 'em up and noticed)" panel and is looking for others to join him. 

This week on The Gigcast in preperation of Convention Season, we talk about Ashcans or Mini Comics with KC Green of Rumblo.com, Kevin Hayman of Errant Apprentice and Katheryn White of Blue Canary.

Harknell and Onezumi, the webcomic coordinators at Katsucon 2008, are proud to announce the "Epic Webcomic Win" contest for Katsucon 2008. This contest will bestow on one lucky Katsucon attendee free items from over 13 webcomic guests at the con including: DrMcNinja, Evil Inc., Onezumi.com, AppleGeeks, Erfworld, and many others.

To win the contest all you need to do is attend Katsucon and fill out an entry form that will be available at any webcomic guest table. The full details are available on the contest page here.

Stumptown in Portland, Oregon recently announced the dates for their annual Comics Festival. Instead of hosting it in late September or October as they have for the past three years, the organizers have moved the dates up to late april.

April 26th & 27th

10am-6pm

at the Lloyd Center Double Tree Hotel

More information and Registration forms will be available before the end of the year.

Mid-Ohio-Con Info . . .

I'll be exhibiting at the Mid-Ohio-Con this weekend. All the info you need can be found at the Mid-Ohio-Con website. The con is Saturday and Sunday only. I've gotten some e-mails from a few of you who've told me that you'll be at the con, and I can't wait to meet you!

So last weekend I atteneded Nekon 10 and had an awesome time. I hung out with the Arist Alley crew of Anime Arsenal, some old friends of mine that I managed to re-connect with. I got to Meet Phillip Brown of YOSH!, whose online comic I've been following for a long time now. He's a really great guy and we talked about art, comics, and of course the hit show HEROES, on NBC. He and Axel both signed a poster for me that is now hanging in my room. I also got to meet Mike "Mookie" of Dominic Deegan, which I recommend you all read.

WHERE: Madison Building, Library of Congress, Washington DC

ICAF is free and open to the public. No registration is necessary to attend. All events will be held in the Mumford Room on the sixth floor of the Madison Building unless otherwise noted. Details and a tentative program available at the website here.

SPX in Bethesda, MD. SPX 2007 will be held at the Marriott Bethesda North Hotel & Conference Center. Click here for directions.

Details on the scheduled programming here. Speakers include: London-based cartoonist Nick Abadzis; Israeli cartoonist Rutu Modan; Gilbert Hernandez; Chris Staros and Brett Warnock (Top Shelf Productions); and a panel on comics and animated cartoons with Kim Deitch, Roger Langridge, Tom Neely and Jeff Smith. Lots more actually including a panel on "comics criticism" on Saturday.

FLEEN notes that webcomickers will include Box Brown, Nick Gurewitch, Bernie Hou, Jeph Jacques, James Kochalka, Carla Speed McNeil, Dave Roman, Joe Sayers, Raina Telgemeier, Colleen Venable, Chris Yates, David Malki!, and Blank Labellers Guigar, Kellett, Straub, Tayler, and Willis.