17.Bf5 exf5 18.Rxe7 Bxe7 19.c4 1–0

I'm just going to come out and say it...I've been obsessed with human vs. computer chess lately!  I watched the documentary Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine which documents the events leading up to the 1997 chess match between then world champion Garry Kasparov and the then state of the art IBM super computer Deep Blue.  First off, I'm obsessed with super computers.  I think there is a really interesting lineage that you can trace from super computer to super computer.  It's one of our most tangible links to science fiction!  Hal 9000 here we come!

The way that these chess tournaments are handled reminds me, in some fashion, of the Turing tests that are held every year.  In the Turing tests, computers and humans interact anonymously with judges who have to figure out which is the computer and which is the human.  It's pretty cool.

Well, that's all I have for now.  I've been finishing up my secret minicomic project that I hope to be able to talk about sooooooon.

Mid-Wersternly Bound...

...or, "Two Birds with One Stone".  I'm off to Chicago in a couple hours for the CAKE comics convention.  Not only am I prepared to have a whiz-bang of a time with my half-table-mate Colleen Frakes, and old pals Beth Hetland, Josh Kramer, Pranas Naujokaitis, Jeremy Sorese etc etc etc, but I am ALSO going to be participating in the age old tradition of overnight road trips.  Part of me is terrified of a 16-hour drive, and the other part of me is pumped.  There's also the part of me that is a masochist and actually brought work to do during the car ride.

So, for those in the Chicago or nearby areas, why not saunter your beautiful hide down to the CAKE comics convention and hang out with some real cartooning rock stars.

CAKE! - June 16 & 17

Columbia College's Ludington Building
1104 S Wabash, Chicago, Illinois
Saturday & Sunday 11am - 6pm
Free and Open to the Public!

Whoa!  It doesn't get much better than that!  To sweeten the deal, though, I'm going back to my roots...

As you might remember from THIS blog post, Leo Geo used to come in a kraft quart liquor bag.  Keeping the comic in a bag was one of my favorite parts of the presentation.  It invited the reader to open it on their own term and explore into the book.

Well, after some finagling, I've found that the new hardcover Leo Geo ALSO fits into a kraft quart liquor bag.  So I've done a special bag for Leo Geo's picked up at CAKE.  Take a peep:

 Wahoo!  Halftone printing!  See you at CAKE!!

When the well runs dry...

WHOA, that title looks way more depressing than it is supposed to be!  What it is referring to is something I brought up a week ago; the first printing of Leo Geo is gone, kaput, sold out.  I'm not sure as to how big the first print run was, but I'm still pretty pumped.  As we speak, the second printing is being drawn out of the inter-dimensional space between the science fact dimension and the science fiction dimension (to editor: that's where books come from, right?).  In the meantime, I've been working hard on Leo Geo 2 as well as some Leo Geo sketches!

 

I'm going to come clean and say that I have no idea where this came from.  I mean, I'm pretty tapped into what goes on here at the institute, but even I have no idea why you'd put a perfectly good burger and fries in a radioactive container...UNLESS, this was something that the boys down at the Nutrition Augmentation Program put together to make a GIANT version of burger and fries.  Okay, that makes sense.  I can totally get behind a giant b&f.

By any other name...

Hello my science minions!  I recently took a trip to my hometown of Essex Junction, Vermont for Memorial Day weekend and the Memorial Day parade!  Parades are awesome, there's no getting around it!  I'm trying to get the Fizzmont Institute Coalition for Floats, Goats, and Moats to work parades into their jurisdiction (currently the "floats" are of the root beer variety!)  While I was in town I stopped in at my old library, the Brownell Library, and was endeared to find a copy of my book in the collection.  I was surprised with how it was filed under, and since then have been collecting the different call signs that Leo Geo is listed under.

JGN CHAD, J.                             J GRAPHIC GN FIC C
JGN CHA                                    J741.5973 C3446L 2012
J 741.5 CHA                                J CHAD
JNF 741.5 CHA                          JGR CHA
JF Chad                                       xz

I'm just nerding out about all the different ways people are classifying the book!  My favorite is the one with all the numbers that looks like some sort of secret code!

Happy Readers!

Hello!  I finally feel like I am out of the weeds here at the Fizzmont Auxiliary Division.  Convention season is slowing down and I'm starting to get into the flow of summer.  There are some big things planned here at Jon Chad HQ.  I'm working on a new Leo Geo book (!!!), a secret minicomic project, and getting back into the saddle with Bikeman thumbnails!

The conventions have been a blast!  Thanks to everyone that came out to the monster drawing workshop this past weekend in Maine!  I had a great time!  Seeing kids' reaction to my book and getting to talk to them has been a real joy.  Here are some of those happy readers from MOCCA and MeCAF!

I've heard that the first printing of Leo Geo is quickly evaporating, and that a second printing is on its way from the book mines!  How exciting!  I've got more to share, but I'll pace it out!  Have a great weekend!

MECAF Leo Geo Event!

Hello!  I hope everyone has been enjoying their May, thus far!  The Fizzmont Institute has been sending me hither and yon for all sorts of events.  Dr. Leo Geo has been away to experiment on the intensity of different hot sauces, so he hasn't been able to talk at any of the events that have been happening at the fine comics events like TCAF or MOCCA.  Well, it seems as if Projecto Muy Caliente is going to continue for at least another month or so, so Dr. Geo won't be able to make it to the event that is happening THIS WEEKEND!

This weekend, at the Maine Comics Art Festival (MECAF) yours truly will be attending with a vanguard of cartoonists from the Center for Cartoon Studies (including some of the AMAZING graduates from the recent class of 2012!).  While the GREAT comics that are always at MECAF should be reason enough to go, there are going to be 2 great programs that you won't want to miss!

SUNDAY, MAY 20th

1:00 PM- The Center for Cartoon Studies One Sheet Workshop

CCS faculty member Jon Chad and CCS Senior Sophie Goldstein present a CCS tradition: the One Sheet Workshop!  Learn how easy it is to make an eight-page comic without staples or glue!  The only thing that participants need to bring is their imagination.  Everyone will leave with a handmade comic!

2:00 PM-Monster Alert!  Junior Cartoonists Needed!
The Fizzmont Institute of Rad Science is looking for young, excited cartoonists that can draw ferocious monsters and deadly dwellers of the deep!  Our famed scientist, Leo Geo, has gone missing on his experiment to the center of the earth, and we need help drawing the monsters that might have taken him!  Join Jon Chad, from the Center for Cartoon Studies, as he leads a monster drawing session and an interactive reading from his new book, Leo Geo.

There you have it!  Two GREAT reasons to show up at MECAF!  Think of it as your duty to science!  Naturally, I will have copies of Leo Geo in tow, and I'm looking for young go-getters who are ready to throw their weight in the ring, for SCIENCE!

TCAF! A Reading! RADICAL!

Hello test subjec...er...I mean friends!  This has been a BEYOND busy week for yours truly here at the Fizzmont Institute!  MoCCA and NYC were a blast!  Thanks to everyone that came out!  The fun just keeps on rolling with TCAF in Toronto this weekend (!!?!)

I am going to be tabling with the infinitely talented Laura Terry, the gorgeously rad Julie Delporte, and the enamoring Josh Rosen.  Whew!  What a lineup!  Our table is RIGHT AT THE ENTRANCE, so you don't even need a map to RAD-ventures!

I'm also going to be doing a workshop this weekend that incorporates a talk on Leo Geo, a reading, different types of unfolding comics, and how to make your own unfolding comic!

SAT: 4:00pm-4:45pm: Facts, Fiction, and Unfolding Comics (Upstairs Kids Programming room)
If you thought that there was only one way to read a book, think again!  Jon Chad (Leo Geo) will talk about different kinds of books, incorporating science into comics, and how to make your own expanding comic!  Everyone will leave with their own handmade comic!

This is the last program of the day, so stop on by before we close shop!  Sorry for such a hasty post, but science waits for NO ONE, and...er...I think I left the model of Mt Rushmore that I made out of peeps in the Fizzmont Microwave Studies Suite.  It should be fine, right?