iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Mike Dawson

THE WRENCHIES FREE FRIDAYS: 11th installment -12 pages (122-133) for free viewing. www.patreon.com/fareldal/pos...

Mike Dawson @mikedawson.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

I remember the cartooning world feeling so excited about this article...for people who were so used to being overlooked and dismissed it was thrilling to see such high-profile attention. Kinda feel like we overlooked the fact that the essay wasn't always exactly giving comics the warmest embrace.

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Mike Dawson @mikedawson.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

(I am extremely skeptical, they'll grow up to stare at reels all day like the rest of us)

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Mike Dawson @mikedawson.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

mebbe there's hope that while it might have been getting ahead of the game a bit to think there'd be a lot of grown-ups reading comics in 2004, perhaps all those kids who did actually come up in the subsequent a graphic novel boom, will carry those habits into adulthood

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Mike Dawson @mikedawson.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

First Second launched the following year, and was originally more of a "literary comics" adult-oriented line, IIRC, that gradually morphed into more of a younger readers/middle grade publisher. It's interesting that in the past year or so they launched the new 23rd St grown-ups imprint

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Mike Dawson @mikedawson.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

This photo and the 2004 cartoonists photo... definitely conjuring up the Pam from The Office "they're the same picture" meme, especially given the content of that NYT article

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Mike Dawson @mikedawson.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

Seth had the advantage in this pic, of being the only one who'd made wearing a suit part of his whole thing

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Reposted by Mike Dawson

Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Crazy idea: Democrats should defend immigration and immigrants, run on the idea that immigrants make America great, and stop Homer Simpsoning themselves into the shrubbery every time Republicans try to demagogue it.

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Mike Dawson @mikedawson.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Thank you, that's helpful to hear. I'm seeing that the XP-Pen products are much more cost-effective, and that's a big part of my consideration here. How large is the one you use?

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Mike Dawson @mikedawson.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

I got this 27 inch Wacom Cintiq back in 2015, so it's getting up in years now. I do like how big it is, but I'd be open to different brands. Does anybody use any XXPen or Huion products? Are any of them any good?

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Mike Dawson @mikedawson.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

This is not a good time for my Cintiq tablet to crap out

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Reposted by Mike Dawson

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 14/10/2026

that’s right

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Mike Dawson @mikedawson.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

I really wanted to like this movie

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Mike Dawson @mikedawson.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

(It’s different but has shades of when people go after Trump for being “fat” or “gay”, sure, you imagine it’s a sick burn, but are we really winning the fights we want to win?)

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Mike Dawson @mikedawson.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Once “denaturalization” becomes common practice, you then have two tiers of citizenship, and one of them has become provisional, meaning that naturalized citizens are no longer “real” citizens at all

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Mike Dawson @mikedawson.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Been seeing some presumably well-intentioned posts along the lines of “instead of going after Ilhan Omar, how about we get rid of Melania???!”, and sure, yeah, great gotcha, but how about we don’t normalize “denaturalization” at all?

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Mike Dawson @mikedawson.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Unfortunately not the killer from the horror movie House, but certainly a notable sweater

The main character in the horror movie HOUSE. He has a deep v-neck sweater on

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Reposted by Mike Dawson

Comic Book Couples Counseling @cbccpodcast.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Over at @schweizercomics.bsky.social's Booth we got a sneak peak at OUTLAW'S APPRENTICE: BROKEN BLADE. Mass Market Paperback size with gorgeous colors on a coarse paper. Can't wait to get ours in the mail eventually. #NYCC

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Mike Dawson @mikedawson.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

It must have been MoCCA 2003 that I recall everyone walking around holding the big Blankets brick-sized book along with the collected Box Office Poison. Giant tomes felt like the future

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Mike Dawson @mikedawson.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Blankets! I knew there were some other big books that had come out around then and contributed to the feeling that literary GNs were about to get super-mainstream.

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Mike Dawson @mikedawson.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Graphix launched the following year (which really did change publishing). I happened to work at Scholastic then so got to go to an early launch party that, now that I think back on it, was remarkably modest. I feel like it was me, a handful of co-workers, and Jeff Smith, Frank Miller and Paul Pope

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Mike Dawson @mikedawson.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

I think many positive things did happen in the subsequent two decades, there have been lots of graphic novels for adult readers that have reached wider audiences, buutttt.... it kinda feels like they got the "not for kids anymore" part wrong

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Mike Dawson @mikedawson.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

As I recall, Persepolis and Pantheon's Jimmy Corrigan had both recently been big hits, and of course MAUS was already a behemoth. I remember the vibe was, regular people were all going to become graphic novel readers now, they'd pick up comics just as like a normal part of their reading diet

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Mike Dawson @mikedawson.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

I'm giving a talk at a librarians conference this week, partially touching upon the history of graphic novels. I have to include this pic from a 2004 NYT profile, a brief moment where it actually felt like comics really weren't going to be "just for kids" anymore www.nytimes.com/2004/07/11/m...

From left to right, the cartoonists Joe Sacco, Seth, Art Speigelman, Chester Brown, and Adrian Tomine

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Mike Dawson @mikedawson.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

The vibes are such in the NFC East that all four teams really ought to be in last place

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Reposted by Mike Dawson

Brian Box Brown @boxbrown.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Author AI scammers are like “ I’m gonna get super rich stealing from people that have no money”

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Mike Dawson @mikedawson.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

The Giants don’t really deserve to be sitting on top of the NFC East but I guess neither do The Commanders, The Cowboys, or The Eagles, so

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Mike Dawson @mikedawson.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Crappiest supervillain power ever

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Mike Dawson @mikedawson.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

When I was a kid the town I lived in was terrorized by a criminal dubbed “The Fox”. I assumed he got given the name because he was sneaky like one, but it turns out it was because when he broke into people’s homes he’d build himself a little Fox den out of blankets en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm...

en.wikipedia.org

Malcolm Fairley - Wikipedia

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Mike Dawson @mikedawson.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

ChatGPT makes it so much easier now to compose an email that nobody will look at and will delete without reading!

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Mike Dawson @mikedawson.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Pretty incredible we’ve invented technology that makes it so that nobody dares click on a link or send a reply

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Mike Dawson @mikedawson.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

The same way I assume now that every email offering me some great book promotion is an AI scam I’m starting to wonder if every editor who receives unsolicited submissions might be thinking the same. I’m used to getting rejections but am sending so much stuff out these days and getting zero replies

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Mike Dawson @mikedawson.bsky.social · 10/10/2026