iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

3 Bears tip jar is full. 1000 rats is empty. These people are delulu.

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Happy First Peanuts Strip Anniversary to all who celebrate. Oct 2, 1950:

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Check the Chris Foss designs for "the Derelict," the alien spacecraft eventually designed by H.R. Giger.

Wait... is the gag here that the parrot has heard Ian in the throes of ecstasy w Mary Worth? If so: (a) yuck, (b) that's actually a pretty funny gag.

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Ben Towle @benzilla.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Stephen King by Naoki Urasawa. Neil Young t-shirt is a nice touch!

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R.C. Harvey was one of the greats. Beautifully-written and spot-on analysis of J. Wellington Wimpy:

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Ben Towle @benzilla.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Unboxed him! He's surprisingly substantial—weighs a ton. (Although, I suppose if you're running a payroll of $300 million dollars a year you've got no excuse for giving out poorly-made bobbleheads.)

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Ben Towle @benzilla.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

In the mail yesterday. Family in LA doing the lord's work.

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Ben Towle @benzilla.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

You really can't do a comic that takes place in the 90's unless you feature at least one character w the ridiculous then-trend of wearing shorts over long-johns.

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Ben Towle @benzilla.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Someone on Reddit put together this WHA 2016 to 2026 character style changes comparison. I see ppl occasionally *complaining* about this. I'm like, fool, I'd be lucky if I got this little "character design drift" in a single one of my ~100ish pg books!

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Ben Towle @benzilla.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Sorting through a bunch of stuff pre-house renovations and unearthed these great WHA postcards we got at Angoulême and then apparently forgot about!

Ben Towle @benzilla.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Dayummm that Far Side original sold for $112K. That's a crazy price for a single-panel gag strip. Assuming it's because you pretty much never see a Far Side original in the wild (this is the first one I've seen on the auction block for sure).

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TIL there's a French word for jungle adventure comics that are derived from/similar to Tarzan.

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This would have been a good email to send out, ya know, yesterday?

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Hahaha. From the Frank Miller biography:

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Ben Towle @benzilla.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Spotted this on the bookshelf at the Wexner Center bookstore last night and did a double-take. This is been OOP forever... but apparently not any more! Amazing anthology of vintage kids' comics. In addition to Art & Françoise, Jeet Heer and Jeff Smith worked on this I think?

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It's laborious, but really having fun with background characters in In the Weeds, like this pair of bomber jacket-clad punk aplacas.

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Ben Towle @benzilla.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Was at an event at the Thurber House last week. Artists-in-residence, visitors, etc. sign the inside of one of the upstairs closets. Here's a few: Cathy Guiswhite, Columbus's own Raf Rasado, Elvis Costello, and Patrick McDonnell.

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Ben Towle @benzilla.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

This panel in the new Tony Millionaire comic is truly one for the ages.

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Ben Towle @benzilla.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Morrissey performing at Riot Fest in a Morrissey t-shirt is Peak Morrissey®.

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Ben Towle @benzilla.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Just finished this. Asadora continues to be great. Amazing that we're getting two series from Urasawa concurrently in English! 🙏🏼 🙏🏼 🙏🏼

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Ben Towle @benzilla.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Bought a HATE original from Peter Bagge at SPX. Couldn't resist a "potato sack Lisa" page!

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Ben Towle @benzilla.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Just for fun, here's the In the Weeds page I just finished pencilling. Seems like I've been working on this book forever... which I kinda have. (In addition to usual life intrusions) I've realized I'm using *way* more panels-per-page than anything else I've ever done, for sure slowing things down.

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Ben Towle @benzilla.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Resorted to a little "creative cut and paste" for the second, upper shelf of booze bottles, but hey, panel's done!

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Ben Towle @benzilla.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Dang... this thing is at ~$50K (including "buyers premium" fee). And we're still ten days out from the actual, live auction.

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Ben Towle @benzilla.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

So, tucked back in very corner of the SPX floor is TRADD MOORE(!).

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Ben Towle @benzilla.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

OMG there's a Witch Hat Atelier pop-up shop in Tokyo right now. WHY CAN'T WE HAVE NICE THINGS HERE???

Ben Towle @benzilla.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Hahaha listening to a podcast w. a bunch of guys discussing the Lucas museum. "Apparently J. C. Leyendecker was gay and there's a lot of queer-coded imagery in his art?" YA THINK? #HugeIfTrue

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Ben Towle @benzilla.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Cool use of Craftint in today's Buzz Sawyer: character here remembering/recounting these birds, so they're rendered entirely in Craftint, without ink holding lines.

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Ben Towle @benzilla.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Somehow the second volume of this has gotten even *crazier* than the first one. I'd love to have been at the pitch meeting for this. Editor: "So, what genre is this new series of yours gonna be?" Naoki Urasawa: "All of them."

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Ben Towle @benzilla.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Hilarious items at the silent auction. I'd actually bid on a couple of these except that I'm not sure if I'm gonna come back to the con on Sunday.

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Ben Towle @benzilla.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Appropriately enough, after my talk on baseball manga, I hit the vendor floor and scored 45's of theme music for Touch and Star of the Giants. (And also a great ceramic brush buddy from Witch Hat Atelier!)

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Ben Towle @benzilla.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Speaking of Corto Maltese... I got some new ink last week. It's still a little crusty, but I think it's going to look good once healed!

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Ben Towle @benzilla.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Damn. Was gonna try to lowball this guy, but alas I'm too late. Mu, the Lost Continent is the last Corto book I need to get to complete my collection. (But I ain't gonna shell out $175 for it!)

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Ben Towle @benzilla.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Working on my upcoming talk on baseball manga for Matsuricon this weekend. Friday at 12:15 in Panels 1 (Delaware) if yr gonna be there!

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Ben Towle @benzilla.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Pics from the Dr. Seuss Museum in Springfield, MA. Well worth a visit! Beautiful sculpture garden. Downstairs is more kid-oriented, upstairs more adult--with his drafting table, ephemera, and tons of originals.

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Ben Towle @benzilla.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Interesting bit of process info for Sin City Family Values:

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Ben Towle @benzilla.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Heading to Massachusetts for a friend's birthday. In-flight reading:

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Ben Towle @benzilla.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

The greatest single panel of dialog in Star of the Giants (so far):

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Ben Towle @benzilla.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Been really enjoying reading the Sagendorf run of Popeye via Comics Kingdom. Curious about the attribution they have w the strip. Omits all folks between Segar and Sagendorf and no Bobby London either. AFAIK they never run those strips either. I wonder why?