Kind of.

OK, Pop! Goes the Icon missed the deadline for vendor registration (hell, for Artist Alley registration). But we have a special treat for you if you’ll be at the annual geekfest. The Utopian writer/artist Pj Perez will be wandering around the convention floors with a bag full of EXCLUSIVE goodies from PGTI, including this:

And these:

That’s right, kids. The long-rumored/hyped/etc. 16-page Utopian Comic-Con exclusive “issue zero” is a SUPER LIMITED run (only 50 copies!!). And if you want one, you’ll have to keep an eye out for this guy:

The comics and buttons are totally FREE but they will disappear quickly, so if you want either, well, you’d better start following Pj on Twitter, where he’ll be updating his location and lovingly receiving your tweets. And surely he’ll have some sort of signing device on him should you want your comic — or body part — autographed.

Pop! Goes the Icon: We do things differently. Like Apple, only way less sexy.

According to strip writer-artist Pj Perez, the reason for the change is multi-tiered: “I’ve decided to change the posting schedule of The Utopian to both accommodate my ability to produce the best quality webcomic possible and the requests of readers who may have been confused by the presentation of two pages on one day spread across two days of posts.”

So while you get the same amount of high school dramatic action every week, you get double the suspense! And really, isn’t that what we all need in our lives? Start your Wednesday off right with the latest entry in The Utopian mythology, and keep an eye on Pop! Goes the Icon for convention season news, coming soon.

A preview from this week's installment of "The Utopian."

In case you missed it, “Special Interests,” the third story arc of Pj Perez’s weekly webcomic series The Utopian, started last week. In the opening salvo, we were introduced to Danny, a freshman at Sagebrush High who’s completely enthralled with The Utopian. As well, we met Sean, a cool and aloof pal of our protagonist, James.

This week, the culture of corruption at Sagebrush is thrown right in the face of James as we meet another new character, science teacher Mr. Anderson. And you just know James isn’t going to be happy with what he sees.

Be sure to get caught up and stick around, because you have no idea what’s coming. For real.

Stay tuned to this site for news about Pop! Goes the Icon’s plans for next month’s San Diego Comic-Con.

The graphic novel will debut during the Vegas Valley Book Festival (Nov. 4 to 8), and an entire panel will be dedicated to Drunk at the concurrent Vegas Valley Comic Book Festival, where not coincidentally, PGTI will have a significant presence. And by significant, we mean possibly drunk behind a table with a stack of crap to sell you. In addition, original art from the comic will be on display at Atomic Todd gallery (1221 S. Main St.) during the month of November.

If you want to support independent artists and get your hands on one of these beauties, just hit up the Drunk website to pre-order your copy now for $25, and you may even get Drunk sooner than you’d think. Check out this nifty video preview, which should get you into the spirit. Or hitting the spirits:

Check out the latest two-page installment of The Utopian starting here, and be sure to leave your comments and feedback. Next week, the third chapter of our weekly webcomic begins, and the action is going to come hard and fast. Yes, we said “action.” You didn’t think this strip was going to be all speeches and weird dreams, did you?

A recent post by Warren Ellis over on his site lauded the continued perseverance of the DIY press:

” …I’m delighted by it, as a toner-stained Eighties kid who still remembers having to bend over staple tines with his thumbs because he didn’t have access to a longarm stapler…”

Five/One Magazine, R.I.P.

For about five or six years in the late ’90s, I published zines and chapbooks, and yes, I used to sit on the floor of my studio apartment, stapling through the center of folded 11×17 sheets with a pulled-open stapler, bending over the tines by hand. To this day, the greatest office supply item I have ever owned is the long-arm stapler I bought in the latter years of my DIY publishing empire. No, seriously, I was called “The Dean of Zines” at some point in my life.

I kind of miss that. I mean, the ease of the internet for publishing and reaching a mass audience is great, but I might write a blog post that 20 people will read, whereas if I printed 200 copies of a zine back in the day, not only would those 200 copies get picked up at coffeehouses, record shops and bars, but they’d also be read by multiple people at some of those locations. And I always like having something to hold, to collect — which is why I’m working on creating printed comics and not doing a webcomic.

I just found it vaguely ironic that I AM now creating a webcomic. Then again, it will be collected in print soon enough, so I guess I get to satisfy both media in which I love to work. And, you know, get copies of my comics into the hands of those who might otherwise never visit the website.

But in this week’s two-page episode of The Utopian, an arch enemy is created and a manhunt begins. Don’t miss the latest installment of Pj Perez’s weekly webcomic that has, um, people on Twitter raving:

“Nice Utopian today.” - rfludwick

“That is one insane erection in the last panel of the new Utopian.” - thechrishaley

Uh … yeah. Just go read it.

Creator Owned is a cool little blog dedicated to reporting on and promoting small press, indie, creator-owned and web-based comics — so it makes perfect sense that they’d pick up on the ongoings here at PGTI.

Comics Bulletin bills itself as “the internet’s most diverse comics webzine.” And who are we to argue? With reviews, interviews, columns, links and a whole lot more, Comics Bulletin leaves few stones unturned in the world of sequential art. And, you know, obviously they have great taste if they covered the launch of PGTI and our premier webcomic, The Utopian.

If you come across any appearances of PGTI out there in the interwebs, drop us a line and let us know!

Need to get caught up? No problem: Just browse the Utopian archives or simply start at the beginning of this serialized online graphic novel by Pj Perez. And don’t want to miss another page? Simply subscribe to updates via RSS or e-mail. Man, could it be easier?

Launched in 2002, Free Comic Book Day is celebrated every year on the first Saturday in May. Thousands of comic book retailers offer 100 percent free comic books from today’s top publishers, including Marvel, DC, Image, Oni Press and Dark Horse.

Why? To drum up interest in comic books for the larger reading public, especially kids — you know, those video game-playing, Internet-addicted, text-messaging little people whose literacy is questionable? See, back in the old days, comic books weren’t something just for overgrown adolescent man-children. They were de facto reading material for children everywhere, regardless of gender, class or social status. Whereas only the top-selling monthly comics struggle to sell close to 100,000 copies today, in the mid-20th century, titles sold a million or more copies regularly.

Somewhere along the line, the audiences aged, new ones didn’t latch on thanks to the distracting offerings of a million other entertainment options, and though the intellectual properties associated with comic books became big business (how many of you are feeding Hollywood’s coffers this weekend when you see X-Men Origins: Wolverine?), the actual industry itself has shrunken.

Why is this a bad thing? Well, maybe it’s not, but personally speaking, reading comic books growing up not only taught me to read, but also expanded my vocabulary, opened my mind to be receptive to all sorts of varying viewpoints, inspired my artistry and, yes, served as a connecting point for peers with similar interests. My careers in graphic design, journalism and music are almost all entirely indebted to my rearing on the four-colored panels to which I was overexposed in my youth.

Oh yeah, and comic books are one of those rare things: Like jazz, a uniquely AMERICAN ART FORM.

So visit your nearest local comic shop tomorrow and pick up as many of the Free Comic Book Day issues as you can. Give them to your son, your daughter, your niece, nephew, cousin or, heck, read them yourselves. Because the gifts of literacy, imagination and creativity are timeless … and priceless.