[Above, Dylan Williams will really be missed. Below, The Dispatch is grateful for the memories.]

1. Tom Spurgeon is collecting the memories people have posted about Dylan Williams on The Comics Reporter.
2. You can contribute your own memories of a really great man in the comments section here.
3. SPX is getting bigger in 2012. Dan Clowes and Chris Ware big.
4. Congratulations to Zander Cannon on being named the featured artist for Lutefisk Sushi Volume E!
5. Congratulations to this year’s Ignatz winners!
6. This week’s featured MIX exhibitor on MPLS.TV is JP Coovert!
7. JP Coovert designs t-shirts for Target — this one could be yours! Just go to the store and buy it. It’s that easy.
8. Speaking of Halloween, do you have your costume picked out? Is it an indie comic book character? Sure hope so because want you to win a PRIZE. Stay tuned.

Submit a news item for the Dispatch via email: crosshatchdispatch [at] gmail [dot] com. Use “Dispatch” in the subject line, if you would be so kind. Or add us to your mailing lists. You heard me.

- Sarah Morean

[Above, Top Shelf offers you a $3 steal. Below, The Dispatch steals 3 minutes of your time.]

1. It’s time again for the massive Top Shelf $3 Sale!
2. Believing this a little bit makes me mope inside.
3. The trailer for Mike Dawson’s new book Troop 142 has a pretty fun soundtrack.
4. Rob Clough names his favorite comics of 2010.
5. Yours truly was interviewed about MIX for the City Pages.
6. This week’s featured MIX exhibitor on MPLS.TV is CCS grad Andrew James!
7. Did you know that Floating World Comics moved? And it looks real nice in there.
8. Halloween is coming! Will you dress as a comic book character? Because we’re going to have a contest for that. STAY TUNED.
9. SPX this weekend!

Submit a news item for the Dispatch via email: crosshatchdispatch [at] gmail [dot] com. Use “Dispatch” in the subject line, if you would be so kind. Or add us to your mailing lists. You heard me.

- Sarah Morean

[Above, the world read some comics. Below, only you read the Dispatch.]

1. Thanks again, always, for reading comics in public.
2. How did you honor Jack Kirby’s birthday?
3. There is an art auction for Dylan Williams going on.
4. Lynn Johnston recalls some memories of Charles Schulz.
5. “When Ferzat was found by passersby on the capital’s airport road, his hands were the most badly injured, in a seeming attempt to silence his pen.”
6. EVERYONE can go vote for who will be the next Lutefisk Sushi box set featured artist!  Polling ends on September 1st.
7. Flooding in White River Junction.
8. The 2011 SPX badges by Matthew Thurber are awesome!
9. This week’s featured MIX exhibitor on MPLS.TV is Sam Hiti!
10. I will be in Portland and Seattle on Thursday – Monday this week. What are the most fun things to do in either place? Tell me, please. I will be traveling with scientists. @ me if you want to meet for drinks and listen to them talk about methods and stuff. Except some of them will be computer scientists, one is a chemist, and I will only be posing as a library scientist so…just @ me if you want to participate in a very bad “walks into a bar” joke.
11. Wow, Tom Neely really should draw Popeye.
12. SPX COLLECTION AT THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, YOU GUYS!
13. SPX! Thank you. What a lovely idea.
14. What the what? Wacom, you so crazy.
15. San Fransisco Zine Fest this weekend!

Submit a news item for the Dispatch via email: crosshatchdispatch [at] gmail [dot] com. Use “Dispatch” in the subject line, if you would be so kind. Or add us to your mailing lists. You heard me.

- Sarah Morean

[Above, James Sturm avoids a perfectly good pun. Below, the Dispatch just beeing itself.]

1. James Sturm says it’s hard to cartoon for The New Yorker.
2. Sparkplug Comic Books should run out of inventory if comics bloggers (and fans) have their way.
3. International Read Comics in Public Day is sooooo happening on Sunday. Find a meet-up or make one of your own or just read outside alone!
4. “The place of comic books at the cultural supper table has never been more secure.”
5. This is neat, a list of publishers that still accept open submissions.
6. Aron Nels Steinke would like your assistance in publishing Big Ideas #4.
7. AW. Fan art from kids! More please.
8. Save the date! CAKE is coming to Chicago on June 16-17, 2012.
9. TCAF is ready to receive your applications for its 2012 show.
10. This week’s featured MIX exhibitor on MPLS.TV is Anthony Clark!
11. Dean Haspiel reads “Beef with Tomato” at BookCourt.
12. Nominations close tomorrow for the Lutefisk Sushi E featured cartoonist spot. Nominees must live in, or have ties to, the state of Minnesota. (Tomorrow is also my mom’s birthday!)
13. Dan Olson has been working on his project “Bret Blackberg and the Fifty State Tour saga” in 24-hour-comics-style sessions. He’ll work again this weekend, starting at Diamond’s Coffee Shoppe in Minneapolis if you’d like to say hello.
14. I hope Kim Deitch is being serious.

Submit a news item for the Dispatch via email: crosshatchdispatch [at] gmail [dot] com. Use “Dispatch” in the subject line, if you would be so kind. Or add us to your mailing lists. You heard me.

- Sarah Morean

[Above, Tom Spurgeon is a survivor, we hope. Below, the Dispatch isn't going to give up.]

1. Now is a fine time to tell Tom Spurgeon how much you care.
2. And also Dylan Williams.
3. Lisa Hanawalt has seen that new film so many of the nerds are going “ape” over. HA HA HA.*
4. Congratulations to Box Brown and the others nominated for the Philadelphia Geek Awards!
5. It’s fun to hear Grant Morrison talk about the perception of geek culture in Scotland, among other things.
6. Solipistic Pop, that wonderful British comics anthology, is trying to print a new issue and you can help!
7. Do let us know if you’re planning a meet-up for Read Comics in Public Day so we can list you on the RCiPD site and Facebook page. I’ll make the event as RCiPD then make you admin so you can even change stuff and junk. It’s that simple.
8. Chuck Forsman has created another hilarious mash-up poster. It’s going in and out of print like hot cakes though. Which is a bad mixed metaphor I guess and totally unlike a hilarious mash-up. Anyway, good luck getting one!
9. We’ll begin to invite exhibitors from the MIX wait list in September. If you’re interested in exhibiting at the Minneapolis Indie Xpo and don’t yet have a space, please join the wait list!
10. Art:21 recently interviewed Lilli Carre.
11. Lilli Carre on a skateboard: The only skateboard you’ll ever need.
12. Except there is also a Jason skateboard.
13. And one from Jason Ott.
14. Do tell Nicole J. Georges if you have her art tattooed upon you. She’ll be happy to know.
15. If you see Tim Sievert at the Texas Bigfoot Conference you could buy some sweet Bigfoot portraits from him.
16. Vincent “King Mini” Stall still draws with pencils and other fun news extracted from PUNY Entertainment about their permanent on-site art collection.
17. Cartoonists living in — or with strong connections to — Minnesota can be nominated as the featured artist for Lutefisk Sushi E starting NOW. The nomination process ends on August 25th, then the voting will begin.
18. This week’s featured MIX exhibitor on MPLS.TV is Tim Sievert!
19. If you strike the wall down, ToonSeum will become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.
20. Tables are now available for PIX: The Pittsburgh Indy Comics Expo.
21. Congratulations to Keith Knight, Jerry Craft and the rest who are up for a 2011 African American Literary award in the Comic Strip category!
22. Christopher Butcher got a very important conversation started on Twitter.  Please chime in with your thoughts about what festivals can do to make things more profitable for artists.  I’M LISTENING.
23. Meredith Gran and your mother know you shouldn’t just give out the milk for free.
24. Leigh Walton is moving to Brooklyn.  Just a heads up so you know to start inviting him to your karaoke parties.
25. Anders Nilsen will sign and discuss Big Questions at Magers & Quinn in Minneapolis on Thursday, August 18th, at 7:30pm.
26. Sarah Oleksyk will sign and discuss Ivy at Meltdown Comics in LA on Saturday, August 20th, at 3pm.

Submit a news item for the Dispatch via email: crosshatchdispatch [at] gmail [dot] com. Use “Dispatch” in the subject line, if you would be so kind. Or add us to your mailing lists. You heard me.

*HA HA HA HA HA.

- Sarah Morean

[Above, future's so bright kids have got to wear the world's worst haircut. Below, the Dispatch has it made in the shade.]

1. The City Pages Comix Issue for 2011 has hit the racks and the Internets.
2. Remember when Kevin Cannon’s City Pages Comix Issue cover art/design for 2010 won some kind of award?
3. One of my favorite early zinester/cartoonists talks about what it was like to self-publish in Minneapolis before the days of the Internet. The point was to perhaps, through your hard work, or picking up someone else’s hard work, connect with another like mind.
4. Ladies and gentleman, The Smiths!
5. Quimby’s has a podcast? Already it runs three episodes deep, yo.
6. Start looking forward to the 2012 Chicago Zine Fest. The dates have been announced!
7. You can apply to be an exhibitor at TCAF right now. Right now right now!
8. Philly Alternative Comic Con is this weekend.
9. Wizard World Chicago is this weekend.
10. And yes I wish I could go to this. #nerdoutwithyourmisterpointyout
11. YAY. It’s not like we’re chasing Batman down or anything. Shut up, quarterback! Your understatement is ruining it. YAY YAY YAY. Please life, just feel free to just get weirder and weirder.
12. I agree that we should all be psyched for Turnstyle Comix #1. Punk Rock + Comics = Best Friends 4 Ever
13. You can read the complete first chapter of Tyler Page’s Raised on Ritalin: A Medicated Memoir at his website.
14. Let’s sell everything we’ve got, pool all of our resources, and save up to buy half of what Schulz’s property might be worth. Big finish: die happy.
15. There is a Comics in Libraries Wiki. Outstanding!
16. The new comics cookbook Just Add Ink has been released as an e-book and is also available for purchase online.
17. Saveur Magazine is still running cooking comics and their latest comes from Vanessa Davis!
18. This week’s featured MIX exhibitor on MPLS.TV is newbie Minneapolitan Nic Breutzman!
19. The wedding ceremony of one cartoonist and his wife created enough fuss to drag this story from one snarky but lovable Regretsy editor — and now we all remember that the Internet is a safe place for no man. SIGH. Also, if you haven’t seen the lovely photos from their ceremony, you should. Congratulations to Brian and Sarah! Sorry everything got weird for a bit. Everyone cool knows it was a good idea and wishes they were there because it looks like funnnnnnnnnnn.
20. Robin McConnell would like to set the record straight: he likes women, queer folk and mammals.
21. Brian Heater’s bunny was in Times Square recently.
22. Jonathan Bennett responds with the rest to Nirvana’s “Nevermind,” reminds us how much we all love Jonathan Bennett.
23. Dustin Harbin will host the Ignatz this year. Like a motherfucking rock star, you can guess.
24. Now you can get the entire classic webcomic series Poorly Drawn Animals by Joshua Hale Fialkov for free on the internet. Maybe you always could? I don’t know. I love this series.
25. The wins and losses of Charlie Brown are few as demonstrated by Larry Granillo here.  But really his success should be measured in how he played the game.  Which is.  Surprisingly often.

Submit a news item for the Dispatch via email: crosshatchdispatch [at] gmail [dot] com. Use “Dispatch” in the subject line, if you would be so kind. Or add us to your mailing lists. You heard me.

- Sarah Morean

[Above, some surprisingly clean jokes are told at the Jim Woodring pen demonstration. Below, you kiss your mother with that Dispatch?]

1. Videos taken at the Jim Woodring pen demonstration at the Walker, sponsored by Rain Taxi review of books, have been added to the Rain Taxi YouTube channel. Go be amazed.
2. Rick Parker has always just wanted to make you laugh. What a sweetheart.
3. In case you wanted to know how this all happened, Cross Hatch editor Brian Heater has revealed the formula for his geekiness on Engadget.
4. Congratulations to Mike Dawson and Alex Robinson on the 100th episode of The Ink Panthers Show podcast!
5. Oh? What’s that you say? Mike Dawson is also the featured MIX exhibitor on MPLS.TV this week? This man is blowing UP.
6. The New York Comic Jam is having a party to celebrate its 10th year of jamming. Help them celebrate this Saturday, August 6th, at Jack Demsey’s Pub.
7. Hope you saw the CulturePOP Photocomix Tribute to “Our Man” Harvey Pekar by Seth Kushner, edited by Jeff Newelt and Dean Haspiel, that came out in July for the one-year anniversary of Harvey’s death.
8. Congratulations to Jeffrey Lewis, whose illustrated song “Sitting Bull” is an honoree in the category of “best writing” for the 2011 Webby Awards.
9. Remember a long ago review of Burning Building Comics which appeared right here on this site?  Well, now you can help kickstart the printing of Jeff Zwirek’s AWESOME collected series!
10. Read Comics in Public Day is happening on Sunday, August 28th.
11. Have anything planned for RCiPD?  Let us know so we can list the meet-ups and events.
12. Want some help promoting RCiPD in your neighborhood?  You can still find, download and print the library and comic shop themed posters on the RCiPD website.
13. Bleeding Cool has audio available from 15 San Diego Comic Con panels plus the Eisners up on their website.  You weren’t planning on doing anything else today, were you?
14. Hope you can make it to the Just Add Ink release party on Friday at Altered Esthetics gallery in Minneapolis.  If you do, I’ll share with you my recipe for “cheap keg beer from the bar.”  The secret ingredient is $3.

Submit a news item for the Dispatch via email: crosshatchdispatch [at] gmail [dot] com. Use “Dispatch” in the subject line, if you would be so kind. Or add us to your mailing lists. You heard me.

- Sarah Morean

[Above, mural mural on the wall, who's the fairest of them all? Below, it is the Dispatch. Of course.]

1. Jon Thompson, Experience Director and Partner at Bolster Creative, brother to Craig Thompson, is nearly ready to unveil the mural Craig made for Bolster’s new Minneapolis North Loop office space. NEAT.
2. This compliments the Lark Pien mural on the south side of Minneapolis, produced last spring for Sun Street Breads.
3. Elio is having a comic page blowout sale! He’s just mad mad mad (about deals). Everything must go! Cheap cheap cheap! Do take advantage of him now before he becomes too smart for this $25 per page business.
4. When will the madness end, Elio?  He’s also giving out free Okie Dokie Donuts postcards.  You know what I’ll give you for free?  A punch in the face.  Come claim your prize.
5. Sarah Mirk says Portland is the best comic city in America.  It cuts a little, we all have our own hometown pride, but I won’t question it.
6. Why would you do this?
7. Yay! More fun cartoonist-made postcards from Chronicle. Now with more Hornschemeier.
8. You say alien, I say zombie.  Potato potato.  Not a comic yet, but just you wait for it.
9. Introducing the blog Uncovered Cover Art: A Sketchbook of Reimagined Children’s Books. They are looking for fans, industry folk and submissions.
10. This week on MPLS.TV, the featured MIX exhibitor is Vincent Stall!
11. On August 7th, Freaky Deeky will feature live reenactments of Garfield comics.  I know this will be amazing.  Mark your calendars!  You can watch the episode streaming live, on your computer, at your house, in your undie pants.

Submit a news item for the Dispatch via email: crosshatchdispatch [at] gmail [dot] com. Use “Dispatch” in the subject line, if you would be so kind. Or add us to your mailing lists. You heard me.

- Sarah Morean

[Above, King Mini takes aim. Below, the Dispatch dodges a bullet.]

1. King Mini did a series of four Target bullseyes for the company’s corporate headquarters in downtown Minneapolis as part of their Design Unlimited display.
2. Just in time for Comic-Con, it’s the official Habibi website!  The book will officially release in September from Pantheon.
3. I keep hearing you can get Top Shelf books now from Comics+, but none of my devices are smart enough to verify this.
4. Tinder Toys are here!  Why hide the fact you still play with dolls, when the dolls are this cool?
5. Comic-Con starts tomorrow.  Are you all so excited?  Like it’s the day before Christmas or something?
6. All known facts about gnomes have been collected here in a book by Claire Carré as a gift to her sister Lilli from…I’m guessing…1987?
7. This week’s featured cartoonist on MPLS.TV is Athena Currier!  You remember her, right?  She used to write these dispatches.
8. I went to my high school reunion last weekend and explained to everyone what an independent comic book is.  So don’t worry, South Dakota is safe for you now.  They shouldn’t confuse your funny books for dangerous magic and you can pass peacefully from Minnesota to Wyoming, where, I don’t know, maybe you should still watch your back.
9. Watch a comic book store in Dallas, TX, move its entire stock to a new location.  I AM TRANSFIXED.
10. Darryl Cunningham’s first animation.
11. Really enjoyed this post from Richard Sala about collaboration.  Basically it says, if there’s anybody in the world who isn’t horrible, you could work with them, but, you know, probably everyone is the worst, so…  Also, his art was used for a board game, which sounds wonderful, but the end results are clearly mixed and maybe don’t throw your money at it if you’re hoping to have any fun at all on game night.
12. You should totally get Sala’s The Hidden at Comic-Con though!  Supplies will be limited.
13. Check out Nicole George’s comic contribution to the “It Gets Better” project from the Portland Mercury.
14. On a personal note, I’ll be in Portland and Seattle over Labor Day weekend, if anyone wants to meet up for drinks or tell me where the cool places are.  Cross Hatch meet-up?  Let me know.

Submit a news item for the Dispatch via email: crosshatchdispatch [at] gmail [dot] com. Use “Dispatch” in the subject line, if you would be so kind. Or add us to your mailing lists. You heard me.

- Sarah Morean

[Above, we learn that some books with very little action are incredibly labor-intensive. Below, the action-packed Dispatch is surprisingly lazy.]

1. This retired political cartoonist living on Central Park West makes us all realize we’re living life wrong.
2. Lars Martinson’s Going Away Sale for Tonoharu books 1 and 2 ends tomorrow!
3. Happy to distribute the work of making minicomics? Don’t forget about the fresh new small-scale production house by Robyn Chapman, Paper Rocket minicomics.
4. We’re all going to miss MOME a big whole bunch. Poo on this arbitrary rule of 22. I thought all the big ones blazed out at 27 anyhow? SIGHHHHHH…
5. You can still join the wait list to exhibit at the 2nd annual MIX! And oh, how I wish you would. Curators have just 1.5 months remaining to fill their spaces, then it’s open to the wait list!
6. MPLS.TV will spotlight one MIX exhibitor per week from now until the show happens on November 5-6, 2011. Check back to their Comics section for new and featured material each Monday – Friday. This week’s featured guest: Brittney Sabo.
7. Noah Van Sciver is currently in a race to finish his Lincoln graphic novel The Hypo before Steven Spielberg can release his film Lincoln.  Are you Noah’s favorite publisher?  Maybe you can help.
8. I need some cartoonists to contribute to The Soap Factory’s $99 Sale.  Can you help?  Let me know: sarah@mplsindiexpo.com
9. Happy Birthday, Alex Cox!
10. You can contribute to the blog Better, Drawn, created by former guest strip artist Simon M., which features “comics drawn by people with a story to tell about living with long-term mental and physical illnesses.”
11. The Chainsaw Comics anthology deadline has been extended to July 31st.
12. “The Town of Hartford and The Center for Cartoon Studies (CCS) will be awarded a $255,000 Vermont Community Development Program Implementation Grant to launch the Inky Solomon Center, a state-of-the-art industry center designed to help CCS alumni launch projects, incubate start-up companies and create jobs.”  (via press release)  Neat!  Congratulations, folks!

Submit a news item for the Dispatch via email: crosshatchdispatch [at] gmail [dot] com. Use “Dispatch” in the subject line, if you would be so kind. Or add us to your mailing lists. You heard me.

- Sarah Morean