I have two brief stories to tell you, and they intersect in a way that’s been turning over in my head of late; time to get the ideas out where they can play in the sunshine.

I saw something at a comics show (no names, but it was a big one) that’s bugged me ever since — a pretty famous comic book illustrator (pencilling, covers, you name it) for the Big Two was showing/selling pages and originals from this comics work, and had a steady stream of fans wanting to talk about how great his work was and how much they loved it. He also had some art there from a side project — a webcomic, all his, not playing with characters that have been around for fifty or sixty years. Beautiful, personal, wonderful stuff … and the capes fans were having none of it.

He’d point it out, talk about how much he loved doing it, and the attention immediately went back to the splash panel of famous characters beating the crap out of each other. They were fans, absolutely, but it seemed they were fans of the book or the character, or the artist’s particular interpretation of the character. The disconnect between their interests and his was practically tangible.

POV shift: some years ago, I was flipping through a Free Comic Book Day issue of something or other, and on the inside back cover, there was a list of TV shows and movies, paired with comics. The idea being, if you knew somebody that didn’t read comics but liked a particular story, here is something they’d probably dig. It was an attempt to bridge the disconnect between non-comics-readers and the world of comics; IF YOU LIKE X, it said, TRY READING Y (and Y: The Last Man was one of the recommendations, for fans of Lost).

That bridging has happened a few times … Stephen King and Buffy fans have (respectively) buoyed sales of the Dark Tower adaptation and the Joss-approved “Season Eight” comics. But I keep coming back to that one artist who couldn’t bridge what should have been a much smaller gap — after all, the difference between comics and webcomics can’t be that great, can it?

I prefer to think at this time, it’s a matter of education. If a fan of JLA or The Avengers doesn’t know that there are webcomics they might enjoy, we can’t expect them to check them out. So I’ve been throwing around a mental list of IF YOU LIKE X and TRY READING Y, which I submit for your consideration and suggestions; it’s down below the cut.

Before you check out the list (and help me out, because there’s a whole lot of suggestions that I’d never come up with on my own), there’s a a quote I’d like to point you at, from the 3rd part of Shaenon Garrity’s Ghibli trip report:

Now I’m back in the States, and my friends all want to know what Hayao Miyazaki was like. My friends are cartoonists, writers, artists, editors. They are amazing people. Not a single one has not been touched by Miyazaki’s films and comics. He is loved by top animators at Pixar. He is loved by struggling webcartoonists. There is such love in his work. It makes you see the joy of living, and the joy of making art, and that these two things are not so different. It makes you want to live and build.

Someday, yes, Miyazaki will die. And when that happens we will pick up our pencils and brushes and Wacom styluses and carry on his work. There is only one Miyazaki, just as there’s only one Totoro with the umbrella. But the sky is full of Totoros. All different.

Have a good weekend, and those of you in Freedomland, enjoy the holiday on Monday.
(more…)

Good news first.

• You people can still surprise me. Case in point, the following email received on Tuesday evening from Joshua Jericho:
  

  I wanted to offer my first double-stack comic for the top image for Wed’s post if you’re interested. I realize it’s last minute and I don’t really have any ‘news’ to go with it — but I think it’s a great comic myself (and I’m only 112% biased). So, if you have nothing else immediate please consider me! Either way, thanks for considering and keep up the great work!!

  Joshua, that’s the most blatant self-promotion I can recall in a long time, and such moxie must be rewarded — your image would have appeared yesterday, but for breaking news of great import (c’mon, Wigu), but I trust a day late is still good enough. For any other self-promoting creators who might try the same, sorry … Joshua got there first, and that’s the only time we’re going to honor this particular request.

• Scary Go Round book 7, Peloton, is up for pre-order. The first 400 orders will receive a special mini-comic of the adventures of the now-erased-from-existence Erin Winters.
• Speaking of books, here’s one that is (for the moment) theoretical, but worth your investigation. Phil and Kaja Foglio have, for going on two years now, been running the early-to-mid-90s Buck Godot story, Gallimaufry. It’s now approaching the end, which means we should see it collected in a nice, fat trade edition soon. Given the sheer insane goodness of the Buck Godot tales, you should definitely be reading if you haven’t been (it’s never too late to start), and should begin saving for the book. It’s only fair.
• The Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art are starting to send around information about this year’s Fest to we pixel-stained wretches, so perhaps my pique-ishness over them not replying to enquires was premature. Good to see that things are on the ball, and forward to the show.

Okay, the bad.

• Think idiotic oppression over your reading material won’t affect you? Think again. Overzealous prosecutor + some of the links over there to the right = you in federal prison for up to 15 years. Next show you’re at a show with a CBLDF table, a few bucks in the donation can would be good — even better, take out a membership and make your voice heard.

TCAF doesn’t have a monopoly on the “CAF” suffix when it comes to comics shows. For instance, this past weekend was MeCAF, the Maine Comics Art Festival, which is in Portland (the one in Maine, not the one in Oregon, which has its own very nice comics festival).

It was the first in what will hopefully be an annual series of MeCAFs, so the website is pretty much that of the organizers, Casablanca Comics of Portland. Fine con reports have gone up in the past few days from Heidi MacDonald, Alexander Danner, and Kean Soo. By all accounts, it was a fine/fun show, and Soo let slip a hint of his next project now that the Jellaby books are done: the adventures of a fact-checking octopus. This has got to be years from arrival in stores and I want to read it yesterday.

• Book signing! David Malki ! of Wondermark fame will be signing in Los Angeles on June 17th; more precisely, in Beverly Hills; even more precisely, at the terribly swank Crescent Hotel. If memory serves correctly, the Crescent has served as the site for previous webcomics book launches, which means it may be in contention as the new official swank hotel of webcomics, if the current titleholder doesn’t step up its game.
• Scott Campbell wrote to say howdy; this was dang cool, because his work is so very, very good. And now you can share in the goodness, as he’s now the author of Double Fine Action Comics and will hopefully have copies to bring to MoCCA. PS: Scott Your work is awesome please make it easier to find and maybe put it in your store because it’s not there.
• Neither book, nor fest: Wigu returns!

Things can happen very quickly on The Twitters:

Outcome: Awesome. Todays strip, borne of desperation, made me giggle like a little kid. Well done.

• Speaking of Twitters, John Campbell has turned his new account into a forum for serialized insanity; it’s like reading a non-drawn version of his comic. And with Josh Fruhlinger’s new Twitter account, it’s Aldomania every day!
• Friend of webcomickry Rick I Hate That Stupid Movie And It’s Not Even Out Yet Marshall has managed to get his semiregular MTV Splash Page feature on comics that should be movies over to the web side o’ things — Dr McNinja’s a good start, but I really want to see his take on Templar.
• As learned from various shadowy sources, the “person” known as Eben07 may or may not exist, and may or may not be responsible for a similarly-named webcomic. Nevertheless, Eben07 (the person or persons) has reached a milestone with Eben07 (the comic); the following is an excerpt from a dossier received by Fleen via methods that we are not at liberty to disclose at this time:
  

  Our comic, Eben07, will be releasing a collection of the episode Operation: For the Love of Russia on June 7th. It is a 52 page full color book with a trade-paperback style cover for $10.

  [redacted] features all the comics from Operation: For the Love of Russia (many of which were redesigned to read and feel more like a comic book page) including the guest comics from Jason Zuckerman and Stephen Lindsay and Lauren Monardo, as well as a “never to be released on the web” epilogue that divulges [redacted].

  [redacted] be selling it in person at the Sacramento Comic Convention on June 7th as special guest invites (I think we’re the only web-based comic that’s going to have a special guest table, but [redacted].

  Fleen readers are advised that the one-eyed dog barks at midnight, and that location “SCC” is go. Repeat, SCC is go.

Those paying attention to Twitter over the weekend already heard — Horribleville is no more. Creator KC Green has been reunited with his brain, and apparently continues to make comics, but that’s all we’ll ever see. A moment of silence, please.

I’m so depressed.

Hey! Lookit the puppies!

If anybody from the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art is handling press info for the upcoming MoCCA Art Fest, I think your email is broken. Contact established! Yay! Also, we’re only a few weeks out, and while the webpage for the Fest has this year’s show poster, the bulk of the information there is still for last year’s show.

Seriously, I love the MoCCA show (and am looking forward to the new venue like nobody’s business), but without at least a list of exhibitors and preliminary schedule of programming, people are going to start to get nervous about whether or not they should come by.

In fact, the one event that I’m certain is going to happen in conjunction with MoCCA is unofficial — Hope Larson would like comickers of the lady persuasion to drop by a get-together the night before for sophisticated adult-type beverage imbibing, cupcakes, and art, art, art. Ladies and Ladies, I give you Drink & Draw Like a Lady. I’ll be wandering around looking at your sketchbooks the next day, where I hope to see amazing art that magically becomes looser, scribblier, and drunker as the pages flip by. Also, if there are any cupcakes left over, I’d be happy to ensure they don’t go to waste.

Lightning Round!

• 100 strips at My Fuzzy Nuts!
• The Ego and The Squid fundraiser for friends to get married in space!
• Tom Mason interview with Miles Grover of Thinkin’ Lincoln!
• I finally get to see Star Trek tonight!

Okay, that last one doesn’t have anything to do with webcomics, but I don’t care. Deal.

I dropped into ye olde locale comicc shoppe yesterday and noticed a small item in the latest Comic Shop News; issue #1143 is their once-a-month listing of everything that’s due to hit the stores next month (that is, June). And in that set of listings (photo above), I noticed something. See it now?

• Also found yesterday: the first Applegeeks book from Dark Horse was on offer, then in my bag, and eventually my home. It’s got to be the heaviest trade paperback yet made from a webcomic — really dense color on weighty paper stock … hefting this makes you feel like you’re reading something substantial.

  Then of course there’s the time scale — these strips date to 2003/2004, prompting one to remember that Ananth Panagariya and Mohammad Haque have been at this a loooong time … and succeeding (sometimes inadvertantly) since the beginning.

• Also also to be found yesterday with a suitable webcomicky tie-in: Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers #1. Here’s the deal — I really don’t read superhero comics. There will be exceptions, naturally; Warren Ellis’s name on the spine will always pique my interest, and I’ll buy just about anything by Amanda Conner because she’s a sweetheat and I adore her sense of character design.

  And Chris Eliopoulos, who may have cornered the market on getting corporate-owned characters to lighten the hell up and be funny. Case in point, L&TPA, which serves to get all the goofball animal characters in the Marvel continuity and send ‘em off on an adventure. Even better, Karl Kerschl did the cover! If the Big Two made more comics like this, they’d get a lot more money from me.

• I know that I shouldn’t have to ask, and forgive me for doing so, but I couldn’t live with myself if by some chance you had been missing out on this. Everbody is reading the collaborations from Laserpony Studios, right? Take one part Anthony and one part Emily, mix well, and let the magic happen.

Wow, it seems like just yesterday that Alexander Danner told us all about the Massachusetts Library Association’s conference, and the attendant graphic novelry thereunto? More on same from Raina Telgemeier, this time with a perspective from the microphone side of some of the panels.

• Dresden Codak update, with an unofficial declaration that today is Literary Technique Day, Vocabulary Day, and Cross-Tabulation Day all in one.
• Neil Gaiman wrote something that’s not about webcomics at all, something that I’ve read five times since he posted it last night, something that you (here, I’m using you in the sense of a creative individual with people who consume your work) that you should point out to members of your audience who bitch about your work not being what they want it to be.

  In the context of a reader asking if it’s unreasonable to be annoyed that George R. R. Martin doesn’t release books in a series more promptly, Gaiman opines:

  I keep trying to come up with a better way to put it, but the simplicity of things, at least from my perspective is this:

  George R.R. Martin is not your bitch.

  This is a useful thing to know, perhaps a useful thing to point out when you find yourself thinking that possibly George is, indeed, your bitch, and should be out there typing what you want to read right now. [emphasis original]

  The piece goes on for a bit after and you (and here I’m using you in a broader sense than before that, one that encompasses each and every individual reading this, including you personally) should go read it in its entirety right now because it’s a beautiful piece of writing besides being a lovely manfiesto on the proper relationship between creator and audience. Should I be on the wrong side of that line in future, please be sure to point me back to Gaiman’s essay.

Also known as Happy Day, Awesome Day, and This Is Why I Have Internet Day. After six months, we get a lateral story jump to the fate of a hat, and a suspiciously-familiar giant. Even better is Ramón Pérez’s news on updates:

I found some folks were often confused with the two page updates on Tuesdays of days passed. So I’m going to try something different and spread the updates out over two days. So, for the foreseeable future (we’ll see how it works out) updates will be on TUESDAYS and THURSDAYS with a page going live at 12:01 am on each day.

That said, this week, being that I’ve been away for a while, there is going to be a new page everyday this week till Friday! So please return tomorrow, Thursday and Friday for more kukuburi! [emphasis mine]

That sound you hear? Webcomics fans doing the happy dance. Speaking of long-absent webcomics, I’m probably the last person to point out that Platinum Grit updated, but to be perfectly honest I had to go re-read most of the previous chapters to remind myself what was going on. Gonna have to go buy the print version, oh darn.

• So, Rupert Murdoch has decided the way to save his media properties is to declare the end of the internet as we know it. Specifically, he’s decided that micropayments are the new black. Given that there’s some experience over here vis-a-vis a content type that tried micropayments vs. giving stuff away, you’d think they might have enquired as to the viability of this plan. Should we tell him?
• From Alexander Danner, a report on the Massachusetts Library Association’s annual conference week, with a final day full of panels specific to graphic novels & webcomics. I was going to point you to some excerpts from his con report, but it’s too good to chop down to a pull-quote. Lot of context, lot of good stuff about where the comics medium (in all its forms) is headed. Miss it at your peril.

Let’s jump in, shall we?

• Will the world ever tire of telling Kate Beaton how much she rocks? Not this corner of it. Nor, apparently, the corner that included TCAF over the weekend, as the Doug Wright awards for outstanding Canadian cartooning were awarded on Saturday, and our Kate took the award for Best Emerging Talent. Everybody feel good for Kate!
• Speaking of TCAF (I so have to go in 2011), much coverage may be found around the nets, but I particularly liked Christopher Bird’s take on things, especially this bit:
  

  ITEM! At one of the panels the various panel members were playing “what indie band is each cartoonist.” IE, “Peter Bagge is R.E.M.” I mention this because Scott McCloud’s daughter said that Ryan North of Dinosaur Comics would be the Ramones, because “only the words change.”

  Bird doesn’t say which daughter it was, but Sky and Winter are both pretty quick, so we’ll award them each ten awesome points and a piggyback ride from Mr North.

• Back today: Anders Loves Maria! Rene Engström has said that she’s moving into the end-story, which is both awesome and horrible. I want to know where these characters end up, and I don’t want the story to be over.
• Man, David Willis should just be given the entire Sunday comics page (except for Doonesbury, Pearls Before Swine, and FoxTrot) to do with as he wishes. Once again, he funkily hits it out of the ballpark.
• Internet Jesus is pretending to want to know about your webcomic, and has declared it Webcomics Week at his forums in celebration:
  

  You do a webcomic? Tell me about it here. Not more than one or two images, please, or else the thread takes forever to load. Don’t forget the bloody link.

  Do not disappoint the man — he wields the Chair Leg of Truth.

• Finally, Valerie D’Orazio does a supremely good job of not falling down laughing as she points us all to maybe the stupidest thing said today about the internets:
  

  “If you give away your premium content for free, you are basically hastening your own demise, signing your own death warrant,” said Laura Martin, a media analyst with Soleil-Media Metrics.

  Forget our little online funnybook stories — the counterexamples on this one are too numerous to list. Unless, as I suspect, her audience is made up solely of people that do not actually produce any premium content, but merely make their cut by charging huge percentages of eventual retail for basically moving said content from place to place, in which case, it ain’t the giving-away that’s signed those warrants, it’s called progress.