The Cross Hatch Dispatch 9.28.09

[Above, Chuck Forsman chats up a tree. Below, seeing the forest for the Dispatch.]

• SPX 2009 is over. But the reign of 2009’s Ignatz winners has only just begun! Check out the complete list on the SPX website.
• Issue #4 of Chuck Forsman’s Snake Oil debuted at SPX this weekend. You can pretend you were there (if you weren’t) by watching Chuck flip through the book on his blog.
• John Porcellino’s Map of My Heart tour continues—though it was only at SPX that the book itself was finally released. For the rest of the tour, copies of the book will be available at each event. The next stops are Desert Island in Brooklyn, and Hub Comics in Somerville, MA.
• Long Beach Comic Con is October 2-4 at the Long Beach Convention Center…in Long Beach, CA.
• Meanwhile, the Mid-Ohio-Con takes place in Columbus, OH, October 3-4.
• And JaxCon is in Jacksonville, NC, October 3, from 9:00AM-11:00PM.
• Captain Hammer (that is, Nathan Fillion) is on tour! He will be signing copies of his new book, Heat Wave, this Tuesday, September 29, at Borders Books in Northridge, CA.
• Prepare to cancel all that you had hoped and planned for the coming Saturday. Instead, devote every second of that day to the annual 24-Hour Comics Day. Crossing the finish line with a completed 24-page comic will be worth it.
• The Minneapolis Conspiracy is getting particularly ambitious about the event: their monthly comics jam will be followed almost immediately by the start of 24-hour-comics day. Let’s hope there will be snacks.
• Kate Beaton has posted some lovely things from her sketchbook, and encourages others to do the same!

–Athena Currier