One of our favorite Webcomics is Hijinks Ensue, which, if you haven’t read it before, I strongly urge you to do now. For the past four months, the strip’s creator, Joel Watson, has been undertaking what he calls “The Experiment,” to see whether he could make a career out of his Webcomic. At the rate he’s gaining readers, (especially with three front page diggs in the last couple of weeks) it’s definitely possible that he’ll be able to make it work financially in the next year or so, but right now, his readership (and income) isn’t enough to see him through the red and carry him into the black.

So right now he’s holding a donation drive and asking readers to consider setting up a donation subscription via paypal. He’s got some pretty cool stuff available exclusively to subscribers. Plus, he’s a pretty cool guy, who would DEFINITELY have watched Hiatus from day one. So, if like the work Joel’s doing with Hijinks Ensue and want to see more of it, now’s a good time to donate, if you’re so inclined.

The State of the Experiment: Save Hijinks Ensue

Thanks to Ven’s two-handed swag-nabbing ability, we have enough for two swag pile prizes! Here’s a sampling - each prize will have a heaping helping of some of this!

Remember, you’ve only got a couple hours left to enter, just check out Ven’s SDCC tweets to find out how.

And, if you were at the San Diego Comic and you got a Save Hiatus card, go to our SDCC page and enter the secret code to win one of many great prizes:

A “Number Six in Black” character lithograph, a “Starbuck in Black” character lithograph, BSG character dogtags, a promotional FOX “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” cap, a set of Mal and Zoe dog tags (never sold in stores), and…
		A great big “Instant Geek” kit of utter geekiness, guaranteed to turn your home or workspace into an obsessive fan paradise (items pictured and more will be included).

You’ve got till 8 pm PST tonight! Go! Go! Go!

This is a really exciting day for me. I just discovered that my Little Damn Hero Kaylee maquettes are now available for pre-order on TFAW.com! I know I’ve talked about this project before, and I know it has nothing to do with Save Hiatus, but I’m like a proud papa. I just have to share the good news!

(By the way, the images they have on the site are not the final artwork. You can see what it will really look like at qmxonline.com)

Well, that’s it. Might as well close up the shop and send all the PAs home, Hollywood has officially run out of ideas. Their newest plans for our entertainment: a movie about a half-assed Spider-Man villain and a sequel to a rapidly decaying series.

First up, “Venom.“. Hey guys! Let’s make a movie about a superhero’s nemesis! Of course we can’t use the superhero, and we’ll be using a different actor, but look! Super stuff! Hollywood, you idiot, this didn’t work with “Catwoman,” did it? For that matter, it didn’t work in the comics when they tried spinning Venom off into his own title, either. If you’re going to base movies on comics, at least pick good comics.

Then Mike Myers, traumatized by the national backlash to “The Love Guru,” is retreating back into the womblike safety of popping out another Austin Powers movie. Now, I liked the first one, and I liked some of the second one, and I freely admit I enjoyed the first 5 minutes and the last 5 minutes of “Austin Powers 3,” but the rest of it made me violently ill that such a monstrosity could be unleashed upon the public. So, following that progression, this one will probably have a very entertaining opening shot and a funny studio logo at the end of the credits, and that’s about it.

(Can there be a moratorium on comic actors who think that just putting on absurd appliances = funny? Eddie Murphy, Martin Lawrence, Mike Myers… get out of the damn makeup chair and just go be funny.

And tonight is your deadline for entering SaveHiatus.com’s San Diego Comic-Con contests, the one where you enter a code to win prints and hats and geek kits and such, and the one where you read Ven’s Twitterings to find out how to win swag from the con. The deadline is tonight at 8 p.m. PST, details on entering and what you can win are here, and I urge you NOT to enter because I’ve already made display cases for some of this stuff, so back off.

I’m back! And very nearly alive!

Many thanks to the people who said hi over the last week, and to the folks everywhere who have embraced our Twitterness in the hopes of free swag. We welcome your self-interested friendship! Remember, the deadline for entering is 8 pm PST, this Friday night. If you were at the con and got a Save Hiatus card from us, go to our SDCC page and enter the code on the card to maybe win some great prizes. If you weren’t, you can still win SDCC swag by finding the swag contest code word in my Twitterings and e-mailing that to savehiatus@gmail.com. Hurry!

It was a fantastic experience and I’m still buzzing about it. You can catch up on a lot by watching some of the many great panels: Heroes, Dr. Horrible, Dollhouse, Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles, Battlestar Galactica, Watchmen, The Office, The Wolfman, Twilight, Pushing Daisies, and a lot more.

More stuff:
Marvin the Martian is getting a movie.
“Eureka” premiered its third season last night, and S.A.R.A.H. the house is answering your questions at Twitter.
The new trailer for “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” is online.