A Clamnuts promo for the new Mister Amperduke book by Bob Byrne.

Photos of- and report on- the recent Irish 24-Hour Comics Day - coutesy of organiser Cliodhna Lyons.

In The Comic Cast's first live panel show, they get the skinny from comic writer/artists Philip Barrett (Matter, Lint, Blackshapes, Gazebo), Hilary Lawlor (Superhilbo) and Paddy Brown (The Cattle Raid of Cooley) on everything from page layout, lettering, scanning and editing as well as getting your comics into the hands of punters and promoting them. With audience contributions from fellow Irish comics creators Declan Shalvey, Tommie Kelly, Gar Shanley & Maeve Clancy. The Comic Cast was recorded in front of a live studio audience as part of the Irish 24 Hour Comics Day.

For the frustrated cartoonist, Shane Oakley's The Joy Of Sketch points the way to making the brain-to-hand-to-paper coordination less anguished.

Windell Comics presents a recently unearthed episode of Windell favourite THE HAT (Beneath his Brim Lies the Fate of Felons).

Sarah McIntyre, Viviane Schwarz & Gary Northfield now share studio space, so jolly japes ensue at their blog The Fleece Station

Darryl Cunningham has been drawing on his experience working on psychiatric wards to create some great mystique bursting strips. The latest instalment on suicide is not easy reading, mayhap you'd call it bleak, but it is human, humane & I'd recommend a read:

Sunnyside Comics (being a podcast about comics, co-hosted by PJ Holden) interview a trio of guests - Adam, Andy and Ryan Brown - three brothers who started the Berserker Comics company last year to produce titles such as The Dead and Church of Hell.

Salem Brownstone All Along the Watchtowers by John Harris Dunning and Nikhil Singh

Padraig-gate is over, with a joint statement released by himself and the Committee.

Karrie Fransman pops by to say Thought you all may like to know that Audrey Niffenegger (The Time Travelers Wife, The 3 Incestuous Sisters, The Night Bookmobile etc.) will be at Bloomsbury Theatre next Tuesday the 13th to talk about her new (not graphic!) novel Her Fearful Symmetry . She's an interesting cross-over between graphic novels and plain-old novels so I will be going along for sure to see what she has to say. Hope to see some of you there. Info and tickets are available from Foyles.

Respectable comics journalist, fan and con organiser Padraig O' Mealoid has been banned without given reason from SF etc convention, Octocon. The decision arrived in a letter less than a week from the festival.

Padraig blogs about the matter here, before a rapidly gathering number of commentators.

As Douglas Spencer writes

"I'm trying to remember any occasion when a committee has banned a critic and then refused to discuss it, and then gone on to find that their public image has improved in any way. No success yet."

Expect much media coverage, communal support, political doubleback, alternatives, failing fortunes and a fire of some kind.