Jeffrey Rowland bitched the other day that “nobody noticed” his “six year” anniversary.

Jeff Rowland is not married.

Jeff Rowland ran When I Grow Up for three years.

Then he ran Wigu for three years. Then he did something else for three weeks or so. Then he returned again to Wigu, and then he switched completely to Overcompensating. (I’ll believe a long form version of Wigu when I see it, Mr. Rowland. And even then, only when there are several episodes!)

Six years?

Pheh.

He’s only been in the business for two years.

So the theory is that people go through stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Dunno if you buy it or not, but I got to thinking about it today because of what’s been going on over at Something Positive for the last couple of days. It started, of course, when Faye died in her sleep and the reality of it hit Fred. It’s hard to tell how much time goes by between panels 6 and 12, but it doesn’t look like much. And Randy Milholland has always portrayed Fred as ultimately a realist (sarcastic, slightly evil, explosive, and grouchy, but ultimately a realist), so it’s not surprising that he seems to skip at least denial and anger.

Today, he’s seemingly even further into acceptance. Mind you, I’m not a clinical shrink of any sort, but while his very soul seems to be slump-shouldered, he honestly seems happy for what he had and fully mindful of what he lost. Of course, he’s not really one given to bargaining, is he?

Naturally, the initial shock of his loss may be masking a long-term journey to dealing with Faye’s demise. We haven’t really seen this done at length in webcomics before, but it has been handled (from a different perspective) on the newspaper comic page. Over in Doonesbury, BD lost a leg in Iraq and also skipped a stage, but has spent much of the past two years wildly careening back and forth in a state of emotional imbalance. Hopefully, Milholland’s ear for his characters will match Trudeau’s, and we’ll see a journey that’s portrayed intelligently, sensitively, and with humor.

We completely ignored his four year anniversary.

And now we’re not even linking to his site!

Okay, so it’s not Monday morning anymore. Bite me.

Sylvan Migdal got really scary in Ascent today (quick shot here of the last panel in case you don’t have a Graphic Smash subscription). For those who lived through the 80s, a Diff’rent Strokes reference is bad enough, but to bring up The Nancinator from the Very Special Episode about Drugs? Scary.

Second, if you haven’t seen the discussion about how Jeph Jacques threatens every webcomic and person you love, go read it quick. And thanks to Tropylium for informing us that there is a fairly comprehensive list of crossovers that can be easily referenced. When I wrote the crossover piece, I was actually thinking that we need something like that, but graphical (spurred, no doubt by Nic’s suggestion along the lines of the music map). And much like Nic, it should not be done by me, as I am a lazy, lazy man.

So, one of you talented programmers should get in touch with L.P. Hogan of the Crossover & Cameo Archive, mine through the data, and build a graphical display that shows crossovers between strips. Once that’s done, we’ll have a contest. First person to come up with a webcomic that existed with at least x (to be determined) number of strips on date y (ditto) that wouldn’t be affected by the QC/OCalypse gets a Fleen t-shirt.

(Contest void where prohibited by law, which probably includes wherever you are. Chances of winning highly dependent on there someday being Fleen shirts, but I wouldn’t hold your breath if I were you.)

Fleen had a recent opportunity to speak with Dale Beran, the writer for A Lesson Is Learned But The Damage Is Irreversible, over beer and burgers.

We have edited out all of the extended and well-informed commentary from Dale about the quality and meaty essentiality of his burger and what the juice felt like as it washed across his tongue and slid down his throat, and what remains is a conversational interview about his comic and his process. We hope we’ve maintained the character of his conversation, but are saddened that we can’t convey the timbre of his deep manly voice.
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Aaron William‘s Full Frontal Nerdity is a weekly comic strip about three four role-playing gamers.

If, somehow, you’re geeky enough to be reading a daily (or mostly daily) blog about webcomics, but have never actually played any role-playing games, then Full Frontal Nerdity will give you the complete experience, from the friendships with your fellow gamers to the cameraderie you develop, and the pleasures of sharing food to the thrill of the games themselves.

If you have role-played before, then this may remind you of the good times

It’s a faithful rendition of a tedious experience.

Jeph Jacques continues his quest to feature cameos from every webcomic in existence. Helen and Dave appear in the background of panel 1 in yesterday’s Questionable Content. This is an incredibly dangerous trend … stick with me here.

QC is fast becoming the Kevin Bacon of webcomics; if Dwayne McDuffie’s theory of TV crossovers applies to webcomics as well, this means webcomcis as we know them don’t really exist. Counting cameos and explicit crossovers, you can play Six Degrees of Marten and Faye with Punks and Nerds, Something Positive, Midnight Macabre, New Gold Dreams, Queen of Wands, Bobbin, Scandal Sheet, Scary Go Round, Bobbins, Goats, Worlds of Peril (subscription needed, links through Fineas), megaGAMERZ 3133T, The Creatures In My Head, Nukees (which gives us Schlock Mercenary), Mystic for Hire, Buzzboy, Narbonic, Lil’ Mel, Picture Story Theatre, Fans (subscription needed, links through Dr Narbon), College Roomies From Hell, Roomies/It’s Walky/Joyce and Walky, Shortpacked, Melonpool (iteration 1), Cool Cat Studio (reference in Fans to Evil Mike), Lethal Doses, Winter, Mac Hall, Megatokyo, Applegeeks, Angry Zen Master, Little Gamers, Ctrl-Alt-Delete, Waiting for Bob, User Friendly, When I Grow Up, Wigu, Magical Adventures in Space, The TV Network Channel, Overcompensating, PvP, Penny Arcade, Diesel Sweeties, and Sluggy Freelance all sharing a reality.

If the guest strips from when Pete Abram’s daughter was born are considered canon, you can work in Bruno the Bandit, Kevin and Kell and GPF (which leads to Newshounds, Help Desk and Kernel Panic). Actually, allowing guest strips is probably a bad idea, as it permits the Jacques/Logan rivalry further space to spread its poison. Finally, if you consider content not explicitly designed for the web, you can even link in Calvin and Hobbes and Garfield! And that’s just off the top of my head. Now considering that Melonpool rebooted, and Jeff Rowland has a tendency to delete universes, this means that Jacques may have managed to invalidate the existence of most of webcomics.

For the love of God, Jeph … stop hurting webcomics.

Object of geek affection Alyson Hannigan was seen sporting a copy of Dave Kellet’s Pure Ducky Goodness (first print collection from Sheldon). It’s probably overstating the case to assume that Hannigan is a fan of Sheldon or any of the other Blank Label Comics (although, maybe she picked up some tendencies from well-known geek Seth Green during their time on Buffy). More than likely it was a set dresser or prop monkey that provided the book, but it’s entirely possible that Ms Hannigan is a fan of our prefered artform.

However cool this is, Howard Tayler may have jumped the gun in declaring his collective as the first to get a webcomic on TV. Depending on how you stretch your terms, that honor may go to Dumbrella, thanks to one of Jeff Rowland’s Topatoco shirts appearing on VH1 (and previously in Overcompensating). But there’s no disputing that having Alyson Hannigan touch your product is the cooler of the two events, and if I were Kellet, I’d be claiming a close personal friendship with the flame-haired goddess about now.

Edit: Consensus is emerging that Alyson Hannigan is indeed a fan of Sheldon. It is now incumbent upon Dave Kellet to use this situation for the good of all. And by that, I mean influencing Ms Hannigan to read, love, and publicly promote many other webcomics and uh, webcomics blog contributors.

So Panda Express is a year old. It’s a story being told from multiple perspectives that involves a missing father, a possibly megalomanical goat, ninjas, an American roller-disco afficinado, a girl, and her (possibly nuclear-powered) panda. We’re not going to talk about it today.

We are going to talk about [Insert Title Here]; with PX reaching its first birthday and nearly 100 installments (click on “read the comic” to get the pop-up), the creators have decided to start a second strip, written entirely by their readers. As long as you adhere to the guidelines, you can contribute to this undertaking. So far, there are two pages up — the first sets an odd stage, with potential story hooks everywhere. The second (same page, just scroll down a little) was written by somebody named “Gore of Gorilla”, and has caromed off into even more random territory. The third will be up sometime after the next round of submissions closes, which will be the end of the day tomorrow.

This is an oddly interactive approach for creators, letting the audience have full collaborative rights (and it’ll cause lit-crit types to go even crazier than usual on the topic of authorial intent). Maybe not so weird, considering that [ITH] doesn’t let readers anywhere near the ongoing PX story or characters, but still … it’s hard to imagine an experiment like this being even possible (much less succeeding) in just about any other medium. The update schedule will necessarily be a bit random, and it’s going to be tough to evaluate or review the comic itself, with so many different hands in the effort. But for sheer, ballsy, let’s see what works effort? Hard to beat.

Edit: The creators don’t name themselves on the PX website, so I emailed asking who should be getting the credit and praise here. They replied that they keep their names to themselves so as not to overshadow the work, so all of us should be directing our love towards the individuals sometimes known as Art Monkey and Grammar Cowboy. Good job, guys!

This page has previously mentioned Ursula Vernon’s Digger, although so far only as an example of art that clearly expresses emotion. This means that this page has neglected to mention any other aspect of Digger, such as the fact that it has an exemplary update record, sharp writing, gorgeous art, and is all-around the best thing on Graphic Smash. Today, it does something more.

Today, Digger gives us the first true webcomics philosopher.

Sure, there are webcomics characters that plumb the really deep depths of thought and the meaning of existence. You got your Utahraptor, your Weedmaster P, Ray Smuckles, fish, and even saucy English lasses, but for a top-notch conceptualization of the nature of Good and Evil, you have to look to a hyena named Ed (click here for today’s strip if you don’t have a subscription). Let’s let Ed muse on the Big E:

Evil is having reason, always, many and many. If hunter beats mate, has reason, always. Mate is lazy, burning food, is stupid, is speaking on and on.

Evil always has some justification; the logic and worth of the argument don’t enter into it, because Evil always sees itself as reasonable. And good?

Is only good not having reason. Little one hugs, no reason. Digger-mousie is giving name to nameless, say “Ed”, no reason. Skin-painter paints skin of child, no reason. Just is.

Good just is. There it is, boiled down to its essence, by a societal outcast guilty of some crime beyond imagining. Get yourself a GS subscription and start reading the other strips of Ed’s worldview (especially the creation myth of the hyena people … it’s brilliant); while you’re at it, notice how well Ed’s speech patterns form an accent that’s not contrived or overblown. Ursula Vernon’s work here is top-notch. You could say that she’s just that good.