I got a text from the designer of Gundam Assemble about today's strip, which was very nice of him. His name is Justin Gary; we met during quarantine and he was one of the first non-family humans I saw in person. We played Solforge out on the porch. He's probably best known for creating Ascension, which was one of the heavy-hitter deckbuilders back in the day. I was already going to be interested in Gundam Assemble, a wargame using the cutest miniature gunpla you ever did see, but when I found out he had made the engine for it that elevated the offering substantially.

My flight ended up being delayed, so in a strange and auspicious turn I happened to be ready to write the strip at the exact same time we typically do. Biddy Blas is constantly being tooled by others in the racing camp, hazed to within an inch of his life, and he certainly deserves a win. Does this constitute a win? I mean, maybe.

We are just about one month out from the 2026 Child’s Play charity dinner and auction! On November 13th we will once again be getting together to raise money for the cause we started all the way back in 2003! 

I mean, I'm a sucker for it too, and I came of age when that's just what teevee looked like. My youngest craves horror, horror of all kinds, but if she sees the tracking go off on a pretend VCR she recoils as though from a serpent.

There's nothing I love more than a wiggling rune, God damn. As soon as I know there's gonna be a rune I stand up a little straighter, maybe groom my eyebrows real quick. I'm always trying to work one into the strip and this time I managed to accomplish it in the most meta way possible. It's powerful stuff.

I ate some food court Chinese and now, by every observable metric, the food court Chinese is eating me. I was able to play a couple rounds of Blood on the Clocktower last night before I began to get a wobbly feeling I described as "nautical" and I have spent the last ten hours or so in a state similar to a furniture warehouse whose boss is out of town, i.e., "Everything Must Go."

My brand has long been "Atheist Jerk-off," but wtf I love Catholicism now.

In this era of artificial intelligence, it is becoming urgent to distinguish human art from what machines produce. There is an ontological difference, even before an aesthetic one, between art and what a machine can generate through statistical calculation based on millions of images created by others. Algorithms lack the spark of humanity. For this reason, the Church wishes to renew an alliance with artists and cultural institutions to safeguard our humanity.

— Pope Leo XIV (@Pontifex) October 2, 2026