Here's the thing... much as I'd love to be presenting you with the tale of our Memorial Day bookscouting adventures along the Strait of Juan de Fuca, various Life Events have intervened. So instead, here's another short piece with some interesting links and things while I try and get caught up on various commitments, including getting the Cartooning and Young Authors class anthologies ready to roll out at the Olympia Comics Festival six days from now.... and getting the damn car fixed so we can transport them there.

I hope you'll come and see us at the Olympia show if you can. The Young Authors, in particular, have really outdone themselves this year. We'll have copies of both the first and second semester anthologies available for a mere $5 and I think you'll find it's money well spent.

And of course the rest of the festival is a treat as well. We're very excited to get to see Eric Shanower in particular, as well as check in with our small-press friends from around the Northwest.

Here's the full exhibitor list.

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This year's Bill Finger Awards have been announced. From the official press release:

Don McGregor and John Stanley have been selected to receive the 2015 Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing. The selection, made by a blue-ribbon committee chaired by writer-historian Mark Evanier, was unanimous.

"I asked on my blog for suggestions of worthy recipients," Evanier explains. "I received dozens of worthy names, but the frequency and passion with which these two gentlemen were suggested led us to an easy decision."

The Bill Finger Award was created in 2005 at the instigation of comic book legend Jerry Robinson. "The premise of this award is to recognize writers for a body of work that has not received its rightful reward and/or recognition," Evanier explains. "That was what Jerry Robinson intended as his way of remembering his friend, Bill Finger. Bill is still kind of the industry poster boy for writers not receiving proper reward or recognition." Evanier will present the awards on July 10 during the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards ceremony at Comic-Con International 2015.

I am especially glad to see Don McGregor getting his due, since as it happens I have been looking at some of his work from way back and finding a new appreciation for it. It's nice to see that appreciation is shared.

Detectives, Inc. in particular has grown on me over the years. Apparently McGregor is working on a third installment, which makes me very happy. This cover art is by David Cuccia.

When I asked Mr. McGregor if it was okay to share these images he said, "Please do, Greg. I may check into seeing if there is a possibility of bringing some copies of these script pages to San Diego, if it can be done in time, and if people are interested. And it may help getting people to know it exists! Thanks, Don."

So hear this, publishers! The book exists and I sure hope it gets picked up.

Meanwhile, for those who came in late, a couple of years ago IDW put out both of the previous Detectives Inc. stories in a nice little omnibus that can be had for relatively cheap.

It occurs to me that while awards are very nice and all, it'd be nicer to to be able to support actual NEW WORK from under-appreciated writers. I'd love to see more Detectives Inc. and if you know the books, you probably would too.

Now if only someone would re-issue the two Nathaniel Dusk mini-series....

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Not comics-related but probably of interest to some of you-- the latest Star Trek Continues episode rolled out a couple of days ago at Phoenix Comicon, and is now up at YouTube.

It's called "The White Iris" and we liked it a lot. I still think "Fairest of Them All" is the best so far, but this was a very close second.

I should also add that the ending of "White Iris" reduced my wife Julie to a complete puddle. Fortunately, the episode's gag reel cheered her right up.

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And finally, I thought I'd insert one of those crass commercial reminders that there are books out there with stories of mine in them. Here's the Amazon link for either hard copies or Kindle.

If you should happen by our table this coming Saturday in Olympia, I'll have a couple for sale at a considerable discount, and will even deface them with a signature and a doodle if you like.

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So I hope all that will keep you amused for a while. See you next week-- either at Olympia, or failing that, right here in this space.