Some interesting followups in the wilds of Webcomicstan today; let’s see what we’ve got on tap.

• Once, long ago, in the wilds of British Columbia, there lived a man named GORD, who owned unto himself a videogame store, and lo his legend is wond’rous. There are those that have dedicated themselves to spreading accounts of the Acts of GORD (love the GORD, fear the GORD), and though the miracles of GORD have not been recounted in many a year (last update I recall was around 2003, 2004, something like that).

  Towards the end of those days a young man took it upon himself to illustrate (nay, illuminate) the teachings of GORD. And verily did Other Things pass into the life of that young man, and the stories of GORD were not completed, even unto this very day when at last they are complete. And that young man’s name? Ryan Estrada. True story.

• New in your local comic shop: the collected edition of Captain Excelsior Stupendous by Zach Weiner and Chris Jones. I’d read the full story of the good Captain online, of course, but I was struck by how much more of a dick he becomes in the quicker-reading dead-tree format. Hell, in the entire book there’s really only one or two sympathetic characters, things are not resolved in a good way for just about anybody, and everybody is almost entirely the Worst Person Alive.

  The most sympathetic character (and the one on the receiving end of the worst screwing-over) is probably the creepy old pedophile at the prom. A’course, Weiner keeps up that sensibility (it’s a jerk world and everybody in it are jerks) in the SMBC Theater shorts that he contributes to, so no surprises; it’s a cynical, pessimistic, and very funny worldview from a guy who’s really pretty sweet and sunny in person. Pick it up.

• Machine of Death update du Jour: MoD has made it onto Amazon’s Best Books of 2010 list, and as MoD frontman David Malki ! points out:
  

  Every other book on that Amazon list is an entry in a massive franchise. Anita Blake Vampire Hunter BOOK 18? #genrefanslovethemserials

  So I guess that means that MoD2 will be nigh-obligatory at some point.

• A little light reading for you, aimed by John Allison at the indy comic “scene” in the UK, but equally applicable ’round the world — A MANIFESTO FOR UK INDIE COMICS IN 2010. Highlights include:

  2. Small press: it is not 1994 any more

  There are comics on the internet now. If you’re good enough, have a decent website, and keep a reliable schedule, you can have a whole career there. The notion of the primacy of a photocopied quasi-zine “small press scene” in the UK is ludicrous. 1 in 4 people in the world can speak English. Questionable Content has half a million readers. It is not rocket science.

  4. Forget what you learned at art school and read some business books

  You need entrepreneurial chops to make a living from your art, or the help of someone who has them. It’s not that hard. You copy someone who has already succeeded. It usually works.

  5. Making money from art is not vulgar

  Art is a commodity. It makes people feel something. It raises the greater sum of human happiness. It increases the gaiety of the nation. It has a value.

  7. Diary comics: stop it

  If your only comics outlet is a diary comic on the internet, you are wasting your time and your energy. The success stories in this field are the product of people with strong, often eccentric personalities and a robust visual vocabulary, capable of turning their lives into a compelling narrative. The 200 people who read your diary comic, on the other hand, all make their own dull diary comics. Or are about to start.

  The whole thing is good, and if there’s not at least two or three items that apply to you, you’re probably doing really well.