Meta

§ You may note that the front page of The Beat looks different. I tinkered with the template in order to alleviate some of the strain on the database, so hopefully there won't be any more crashes before we move to our new, updated look and server (which is coming, promise). In the course of doing this, I crashed the database worse than it ever had been before to the point where even after rebooting the server the errant process would immediately lock it up again.

Seriously. I feel like it is New Year's Day again now that you-know-what is over. I can clean the closets, file things away, start NEW projects and just get on with life. BONUS: Comic-Con was so early this year that I actually have five weeks of summer left!

Back in July 1982, the Comics Journal ran an article titled “Archetype Meets Angst” by one Heidi D. MacDonald. Thirty years later, during Comic-Con International surrounded by so many people she knows, we here at The Beat celebrate our Editor-In-Chief, and bestow the honorary title of "exemplar"!

All the apologies in the world for today's Beat outage. I finally figured out how to get it back online. Our Elite Tech Team is working on a more secure and long-lasting solution but in the meantime, Python, Apache, and MySQL are refusing to play nice. Man, I missed the Beat. It was scary not having it around.

We're done at BEA and BlogWorld and so on, and getting back up to speed on posting. Huge thanks to Torsten, Todd, Vanguard Steve, and Jessica for keeping the show running while we were away from the computer. We'll have more BEA thoughts tomorrow but in the meantime, not to make anyone jealous or anything, but here's the promo item of the show...and maybe the year, a travel themed giveaway for Lemony Snicket's new series, "ALL THE WRONG QUESTIONS", which has art by Seth...everything from a pen with an octopus to a bar of soap. The first book will have a 1 million copy laydown October 23rd.

Warren Ellis, the acerbic writer and social critic, discusses perhaps reinstating his commenting system, an idea he quickly rejects:

A brief conversation with a co-worker starts with Archie and ends with Gary Owens, with cameos by Scooby-Doo and Batman! (No Kevin Bacon, alas.) Read on to discover the crazy linkage!

The anniversary of Jim Henson's passing gets me thinking...

As previously noted, we were guests the other night on Comic News Insider's gala 400th episodealong with Ben Templesmith, Chriss Cross, Becky Cloonan, Paul Pope, Emma Hayley, and many more. And we were there to announce a new partnership between CNI and The Beat!

Over the weekend, Cory Marder passed away after a long illness. The wife of Beanworld creator Larry Marder, Cory was best known to a small group in the industry, but loved by everyone she touched. Charles Brownstein has a beautiful tribute here that says everything. My heart goes out to Larry on this irreplaceable loss.

We're looking for a few good people to help cover this year's San Diego experience. What you get: a press badge. What you do: write.

Pop culture writer John Tebbel passed away yesterday. An occasional contributor to ComicMix and frequent commenter here and at other comics sites, John was probably most familiar to the comics world as the husband of Martha Thomases, herself a comics writer and DC's publicity manager for most of the '90s. He was also an expert on animation and you can find some of his articles on the subject scattered about the internet. He and Martha also co-founded Comedy Magazine.