David Mariotte's Bots & Bits

Announcing Samidoon: Comics for a Free Palestine!

March 15, 2025

Today, officially is the launch of Samidoon: Comics for a Free Palestine. This volunteer charity comics project is the long-gestating effort of Palestinian...

On Hiatus

April 7, 2024

Hi there, The blog's going on hiatus. I don't know how long it'll be, but long enough that my Patrons have had their billing paused for the next month, and I...

How to Fix Things: The War on Sex

March 16, 2024

Welcome back!Sorry for no blog last week. Becca was tabling an event on Saturday and that meant my Sunday was eaten up doing chores around the house instead...

My Favorite Mostly Obscure Comic

March 3, 2024

Hi all, This week's going to be fun! We're going to talk about one of my all time favorite comics, Justice League Adventures #6! But first, to get the more...

The More Things Change, the More I Have to Update

February 25, 2024

Hey-o! To start this week's blog on a positive note: I wanted to do an update to my last blog because there was movement in a positive direction there and I...

Not So Evergreen: A Perennial Problem

February 18, 2024

Hi there, Wouldja believe it, this week I was thinking about comics? I know, it's hard to imagine I've had time around Valentine's Day and preparing for our...

I'm 100 Hours in and I Still Don't Know if I Like Baldur's Gate

February 11, 2024

Hello there and welcome back! As the title suggests, I've been playing Baldur's Gate 3 a lot recently. I picked it up slightly before starting my new job...

Stuff That Sucks, Part 2 (Not Everything is Terrible)

February 3, 2024

Hello! This is going to be a long one covering a lot, so y'know, feel free to take breaks, stretch your legs, get some water. Take care of yourself. Because...

New Job, Boom!

January 21, 2024

Hey friends, Going to be a short one this week, but I definitely didn't want to let it pass without saying a little something. If you haven't heard otherwise...

To Enter the Public Domain!

January 13, 2024

Hey friends! I touched on this last week with public domain day (the first of the year) and obviously I've talked at length about copyright here in the past,...

It's Weird Being Between Two Jobs

January 7, 2024

Hi there and happy new year! Title kinda says it all in this week's blog, but the strangeness of this time in my life is really settling in. Just because of...

Best of 2023

December 30, 2023

Hi there, This week, we're celebrating the 2 year anniversary of my website and blog (well, just under 2 years, it officially launched on Jan 1). So, to...

Goodbye IDW! Hello Something New!

December 22, 2023

Hi there! After seven years and some change, today, 12/22/2023, is my last day at IDW Publishing. It's for good reasons. Things just timed out that my last...

Save Your Work!

December 16, 2023

Hello, friends! This week is going to be very quick because, not to get ahead of myself, but next week is likely going to be pretty long. I didn't mean to...

100 Blogs (Give or Take): FIGHT!

December 9, 2023

Hello! Welcome to my 100th* blog! *Or, rather, blog week 101 over on my website. In terms of actual blogs, I'm probably more in the 70s-80s? I try to update...

Why is it so Hard to Launch a Superhero Universe?

November 24, 2023

Face front, true believers! We're talking superhero comics! In particular, we're going to be talking a little more history this time and then, y'know, time...

Keeping Your Comic Perspectives Broad

November 19, 2023

Hi there! This week, I've had a lot on my mind. I saw a conversation going around Bluesky about whether the big two are publishing comics for kids in a way...

Burning a Resource (Or How I'm Leaving Twitter)

November 12, 2023

Hey again! Yesterday, I drew and posted a little comic on my various socials (reposted here) about how I'm gearing up to officially shut down my Twitter. And...

Tools of the Trade

November 4, 2023

Hello hello! I'm hoping this'll be a pretty quick blog today because I have a lot of ideas kicking around my head and want to focus on trying to write some...

Doing What You Love

October 28, 2023

Hi again, There's an old adage that says if you love what you do, you'll never work a day in your life. It's one of those things we've all heard and pretty...

How I Got Here

October 18, 2023

Hello,And happy birthday to me! I got you a present! It’s a blog!Thanks for joining me for what ought to be a somewhat unusual blog. This one’s both...

Celebrity and Culpability

October 14, 2023

Hey, how's it going? It's been a helluva week, huh? RIGHT UP TOP: Trigger warnings on this one. I am going to talk about the Israel-Hamas War. I'm going to...

Copyrights and Wrongs, Part 4 (A.I.)

October 7, 2023

Greetings! We come, at last, to the end of our discussion on copyright (for now)! And we're talking about it specifically in relation to "Generative A.I.", a...

Copyrights and Wrongs, Part 3

October 1, 2023

Happy October and welcome to the spookiest month! This week, we're continuing the long talk about copyright! This week I wanted to talk particularly about...

Copyrights and Wrongs, Part 2

September 24, 2023

Welcome back! As promised last week, once again we're going to be talking about copyright! I also gave some homework at the end of that. If you haven't yet...

Copyrights and Wrongs, Part 1

September 15, 2023

Hello there! Feels like it's been a bit since we last spoke, and I'm sorry for that. Two weekends ago, Becca and I were out of town (I'll share a little bit...

Week 86 - 8/28/23 - A BLUE BEETLE MOVIE???

August 28, 2023

Hi there, It probably isn't news as it's a pretty popular film in theaters right now, but there's a Blue Beetle movie out! And it's a lot of fun! If you...

The Perfect (Editorial or Agent) Match

August 20, 2023

Hey there, Yogi Bear! To start out today's blog, I wanna talk about a kinda fun recent thing. Steve Lieber, who I've mentioned before for having his 12 point...

Keep it Forever? Me and Physical Media

August 13, 2023

Hello friends! I swear that this blog isn't just me advertising that I've got some stuff up for sale on ebay (but also, I totally do). As I think I've made...

You Can Always Restart

August 6, 2023

Ahoy hoy!I've mentioned a few times over the past couple of weeks (mostly in the "What I enjoyed" section) that I've been reading David M. Willis' Dumbing of...

Writing for your First Audience

July 29, 2023

Hello! Today's blog is mostly for newer to comics folks, though there's probably some useful stuff for old hats here too. As an editor, I see a LOT of...

July 24, 2023

Hello! This is a funky thing, but welcome to an abridged blog?! This won't usually be the case, but if you want to know more about my time at SDCC, including...

The 6 Figure Theory

July 15, 2023

Hello! In today's blog, I'm getting spicy! In that I have a hot take that is of course related to the current state of the entertainment industry, but isn't...

A Matter of Time

July 9, 2023

Surf's up, gang! Aloha from the beach! Okay, not really. I'm at home at time of writing, but I've made 2 whole trips out to the ocean this week, so I'm...

Let's Buy a Comic

June 24, 2023

Hello! Check it out, I'm back a second week in a row! Pretty good! Alrighty! Lets get right to it! I'm hoping to keep this one quick! Because this comes up a...

We're Back, A Blog Story?

June 17, 2023

Hey, long time no see, huh? I'm back from the longest hiatus this blog's ever gone on. And for today's entry, I'm just going to briefly recap what's been...

Ask Me (Almost) Anything 2023, Part 2!

April 22, 2023

Hey all! Welcome back! Two weeks ago, I solicited a bunch of questions for an ask me (almost) anything feature on the blog and folks really delivered! I had...

Ask Me (Almost) Anything 2023, Pt. 1

April 15, 2023

Hello!This week, I'm answering a bunch of questions about comics from you, the reader! There will also be some non-comics-y questions that'll pop up too,...

Send in Your Qs!

April 9, 2023

Hi there! This is a suuuuper short blog this week. It was going to be a "Stuff that Sucks" but probably because there is so much bad stuff going on, I'm not...

Butter Sales

April 1, 2023

Hello! Today's update is kind of a journey, but it's all leading to a super important update, so just stick with me. No real better way to get into it than...

Shelf Space/WonderCon

March 21, 2023

Hello! Great news: Apparently my lost blog is not so lost! I thought I deleted most of this, but the site did save it, but was just giving me trouble over...

Braindead

March 12, 2023

Hello hello again! This will be another quick update as I'm very tired! We are officially back from our back-to-back(-to back) conventions! Last time, I...

'Tween AZCAF & WaifuExpo

February 27, 2023

Hi! As promised, a quick update between my aforementioned too many conventions. Becca and I spent this weekend at the Arizona Comic Book Arts Festival in...

Too Many Conventions!

February 18, 2023

Hello! Turns out, I'm a liar. If you read last week's blog, I ended it with a whole little plan for the next couple of weeks, completely having forgotten...

The Staying Power of the Simpsons

February 11, 2023

Hey there! This week we're talking about longevity. If you've been reading my "What I enjoyed this week" bit for a while, you know two things I've recently...

Mr. Piggy

February 4, 2023

Howdy! Pretty brief one this week. You may've seen that Feb 1 was Hourly Comics Day. This is an annual event where people make a comic every hour. Lots of...

Brandifying the "Geek", or How Funko Became the Band-Aid

January 29, 2023

Hello again! Last week, I was talking about comics job (in)security, particularly in light of the majority of Comixology staff being let go, and also touched...

Comics Job Security

January 21, 2023

Hello! This week, Amazon gutted Comixology. Roughly 75% of staff was laid off in one fell swoop, with the remaining staff kept on with the knowledge that...

The Continuity Conundrum

January 14, 2023

Hey, welcome back! As so often happens, I was scrolling through Twitter one day over the winter break and saw the very talented up-and-coming artist Kara...

The New Year (2023)!

January 7, 2023

Hi there and happy new year! I'm back after a short break for the holidays! As of writing, I've been maintaining my blog on my own website for over a year....