Filling the Gaping Void with Hugh MacLeod

Even though the blogosphere has over 75 million blogs, Hugh MacLeod is easily one of a kind that stands out. His cranky cartoons on his blog Gaping Void are so loved that when Hugh figured out a java script solution to get them syndicated on blogs everywhere, they were picked up by thousands of fans.

Known for bashing ad firms ("If you talked to people the way advertising talked to people, they'd punch you in the face") and crappy bloggers, the former Madison Ave. PR man, Hugh was fed up dealing with "dickless bosses" and packed up shop and moved to the UK seven years ago. It took an invite from SXSW to get him to cross the pond and return to the states for the first time in those seven years, so when we heard that he was going to speak on a panel clear across the convention center from the very popular Bruce Sterling Rant, we knew we had to see and hear Hugh.

Afterwards we shared drinks with him and discussed blogging, art, giving away your stuff for free, the squigglies in his business card sized cartoons, and love, but somehow didn't talk about his hugely successful South African wine business.

Maybe we'll go over that when he returns in 2014.