This is the report of the second “Webcomics School” panel session at SDCC; look for the third tomorrow-ish. After everything is vaguely back to normal around here, we’ll consult with the session moderator and panelists, expand these recaps, and keep ’em conspicuously posted as a resource for webcomics creators. Please note that these writeups are lengthy, and continue behind the cut for a good long ways.

As an aid to readability, these recaps are presented not as a transcript of a Q&A (a shame, really, as a transcript of what quickly became The Scott & R Show would be really, really funny), but as a heavily edited narrative, with “takeaway” lessons that summarize the mood of the panel in response to each topic of discussion. Fleen welcomes corrections or clarifications from the participants.

Webcomics 102: Finding Your Audience
At the podium, Bill Barnes (Unshelved)
On the panel, R Stevens (Diesel Sweeties), Kristofer Straub (Starslip Crisis), Scott Kurtz (PvP), and Jerry “Tycho” Holkins & Mike “Gabe” Krahulik (Penny Arcade). More than 200 people can fit in the room, if 50 of them stand around the perimeter; Krahulik suggested the audience ask for a larger room next year, and to let the con organizers know that “webcomics are kind of a big deal now.” Moderator Bill Barnes started by asking the audience how many of them were there specifically to hear a creator speak, and how many to learn how to make webcomics; it comes down about 200 to 30, in favor of learning webcomics. Given the sheer number in the audience, Barnes opted to immediately open the session to questions from the floor.

Giving The People What They Want
Asked how often they pander to the audience in an attempt to boost readership, Holkins and Krahulik commented that Penny Arcade has a history of being “self-indulgent” (Holkins) and sometimes irritating people who just want a videogame gag. Put another way, “I got a lot of angry mail after Kenny Rogers saved Gabe from hobos” (Krahulik). But, Kurtz said, while you don’t want to pander, you do want to keep the audience engaged by providing something accessible.
Takeaway — If you want to do hobos, do hobos — but your audience needs to be hooked if hobos aren’t their thing.
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I thought QC was the only strip doing a guest week, but it looks like R.Stevens is taking a much needed rest and has called on the friendly assistance of his web comic pals.

Today’s guest strip over at Diesel Sweeties features everyone’s favorite easily-angered character, Red Robot. This strip has him demolishing the human lifeform, which is his favorite pastime. Now what I’m really looking forward to is getting to order my very own Red Robot toy and having him guard my computer from pathetic hu-mans.

Scott McCloud did an interview with Wired.com in which he asserted that webcomics are the great wild card in the art form today. Seeing as he’s written books, and is seen as a “leading scholar,” you might trust what he has to say at face value. My understanding from the interview is this: Because there are no editorial limits, and with themes and genres multiplying to fit every niche audiance, as well as the techniques that can manipulate space, there are “mutations” which are changing the art form in new and exciting ways.

Colin Reed Moon wrote a piece in opposition to the assertion that webcomics were a wildcard. His argument, to the best of my analytic reading abilities, is that webcomics are often no different than their print counterparts, that they regularly crossover into the traditional print medium, and their influence is felt in the popular culture, as with the making (his verb, not mine) of Snakes on a Plane. Thus, webcomics are not a wildcard, they are an artform and they are influential.

Both identify the trend of webcomics becoming print comics in anthologies and such. However, McCloud mentions it in terms of how webcomics are like their print counterparts, whereas Colin sees it as a sign of success. How should we take this trend of anthologies? Does it limit the freeform and free-for-all nature of the webcomic? And is the influence that Colin identifies evidence that webcomics have arrived? Or is it more evidence of the wildcard nature of the medium — that anything can and will happen?

This is the report of the first “Webcomics School” panel session at SDCC; look for the other two in the forthcoming days. After everything is vaguely back to normal around here, we’ll consult with the session moderator and panelists, expand these recaps, and keep ’em conspicuously posted as a resource for webcomics creators. Please note that these writeups are lengthy, and continue behind the cut for a good long ways.

As an aid to readability, these recaps are presented not as a transcript of a Q&A (in fact, the sessions were quite wide-ranging and sometimes anarchic), but as a heavily edited narrative, with “takeaway” lessons that summarize the mood of the panel in response to each topic of discussion. Fleen welcomes corrections or clarifications from the participants.

Webcomics 101: Getting Started
At the podium, Bill Barnes (Unshelved)
On the panel, Dave Kellett (Sheldon), Jon Rosenberg (Goats), Brian Fies (Mom’s Cancer), and Phil Foglio (Girl Genius). Let’s see, that’s funny, funny, funny, serious, funny. Everybody milling around the podium is polite until Rosenberg asks Fries, “Is it okay if I make fun of your mom?” “We do,” comes the reply. Laughter, broken tension, and smiles all ’round as the audience is coming in. There’s space for 150 people in room 3, and just about every chair is taken.

Word of Mouth
Barnes introduces the session as “year two of webcomic school at SDCC”, and starts off with a question for the panel: “What brought you to publish on the web?” The answers varied from “accident” (Kellett was prepping a syndicate submission and wanted to share his efforts with family and friends) to “malice” (since they got on each other’s nerves, Rosenberg’s roommate wanted to keep him busy for a couple hours in the evenings), to “necessity” (Fies wanted to get the story out and get feedback as it was happening), to “getting smart” (Foglio had advised many people that the economies of print are not in their favor, and the web is).

The common thread was that all of them saw things balloon and grow in a grassroots fashion (in Foglio’s case, increasing readers of Girl Genius eightfold and tripling sales of the reprint volumes).
Takeaway — When readers like what you do, they will tell people.
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Today’s Questionable Content guest strip is possibly the most twisted, disgusting, and appalling comic that I’ve read recently. But it’s also the funniest thing I’ve read in long time as well. And when I say long, I mean Tommy Lee long.

If you enjoy the comedy stylings of Lick My Jesus, Sarah Silverman, or Wonder Showzen, then go check out the strip. I love dark humor, and nothing makes me laugh like taunting a poor girl about the suicide death of her father with fruit pies.  

Thank you Chris Hastings for this comic, or should I say Christ Hastings?

DJ Coffman wins the Comic Book Challenge!

Details here and here. Good luck with the book, DJ, and make sure you have fun with it.

Okay, no more of that. I’m tried and cranky as hell, so here’s what to expect over the next couple of days:

1. Postings about SDCC (including this one) will be edited to include links and graphics, as well as some corrections prompted by comments from you. Thanks to everybody who supplied details when I was unable to.
2. A full writeup of sessions will be the next priority. Bill Barnes, moderator of the Webcomics 101|102|103 series, has directed people here for summaries of the sessions. In time, I hope to make this a permanent part of the site, maybe call it “Class Notes” or something.
3. Book reviews. Got everything I wanted except for the new Penny Arcade volume, so I’ll pick that up (hopefully) this week.

Lastly, congrats to Eisner winner Scott Kurtz, for the category (Best Digital Comic) that most closely resembles “webcomics”.

Update: I’m sure that Aaron Renier is a nice person and I like just about everything that Top Shelf does, but fie! Fie on the Eisner voters for overlooking Ursula Vernon as “Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition”. To right this grievous wrong, I’m telling you all to go read through Digger if you haven’t already. Buy the book, too.

Update: He may not work in webcomics, but he’s a great friend of the medium and a hell of a nice guy, so congratulations also to Eisner winner Andy Runton, who clearly produces the “Best Publication for a Younger Audience”.

Update: Speaking of Graphic Smash, I was unable to attend Mr. T‘s session on Sunday regarding the History of Webcomics, wherein I understand there were to be announcements regarding the changes at GS. T, if you’re reading, point us to the info.

Update: I was also unable to attend the Lee Marrs “Hypercomics” session; if anybody can give us a rundown, the contact link is just over there to the right.

Links and graphics to be added to these reports later. But hey: Saturday update! Here are the haps from Friday at San Diego Comic Con:

• The Lovely Lads of (Blank) Label have a plan for domination; these gentlemen do not merely constitute a group of like-minded talents, but the cogs of a finely-tuned Webcomics Engine that seeks to operate with maximum purpose and efficiency. If you meet Paul Taylor, speak up, as I fear his hearing has been damaged a bit from sitting between the very loud shirts worn by David Willis and Howard Tayler.
• The Dangerous Dudes of Dumbrella, by contrast, do not have a plan any more elaborate than “have fun with friends” and “make sure the booth has exactly what the fans want” (and that includes not merely merchandise and the ability to pay with plastic; it also means access to creators who are accessible and truly appreciative of their visitors). Sadly, nobody took me up on the $1 Challenge, and so the world does not know what the collective noun for members of Dumbrella is.
  Update: There have been multiple guesses in the comments and let me say, you’re all so far away from the real answer, it’s not even funny. Hint #1: The answer is in the form a “____ of ____”. Hint #2: No variation of the world “Dumbrella” appears in the answer.
• I have a new found respect for Bill Barnes, Kris Straub, and Dave Kellett with their mad moderation skills. A snap invite and hasty acceptance led to me standing at a podium and microphone to “run” the Dumbrella panel. Really, it’s an easy job, since all you have to do with Messers Bell, Cloud, Rosenberg, Rowland, and Stevens is to wind ’em up and let ’em loose.
• Not that the good Mr Barnes doesn’t know what it’s like herding cats; he did an admirable job keeping Webcomics 102: Finding Your Audience moving at a smart clip; large room (estimated 200 capacity, SRO), with a fans/want to make webcomics breakdown of about 25/175. There will have to be a fuller explanation later about what happens when you put R Stevens, Kris Straub, Scott Kurtz, Gabe, and Tycho on stage together, but for now, we’ll let Kurtz summarize it with one word: lesbians.
• I was unable to attend the Keenspot Spotlight on Awesomeness, but I understand that there was a screening of Meredith Gran’s Polar-oid (do a search in that little box over to the right). What was actually pretty “Keenspot awesome” that I did see was witnessing Jon Rosenberg talking to a nice young lady about her strong negative feelings on Keenspot, urging her to ever greater heights of verbal disdain while Darren “Gav” Bleuel was standing right behind her, finally introducing the two of them. Very funny, and Jon — you’re going to hell.
• Cool Thing of the Day: At the BLC panel, Dave Kellett on syndication vs. going it alone, quote, In this liminal state, where print is dying and webcomics are rising, I know of no syndicated cartoonist who has been syndicated since 2000, who doesn’t have a second job, unquote.

Right there, ladies and gentlemen, that’s why webcomics matter.

• Possibly Cooler Thing of the Day: You may have had some difficulty getting through to the site yesterday. That’s because Scott McCloud, in an interview with Wired.com, listed Fleen (along with Comixpedia and The Webcomics Examiner) as a good place to learn about this crazy medium we love. “Fleen’s become a good source,” he told me. For the record, I did not squee like a 13 year old fangirl, but that glow you see on the horizon is me in an incandescent state of joy.

Saturday Sessions of Note: How to Make Compelling Web Comics with Lee Marrs at 4:00 to 5:00 pm, Webcomics 103: Making Money at 6:00 to 7:00, and with Bill Barnes, Robert Khoo, Phillip Karlsson (Dumbrella Hosting), Howard Tayler, and Jennie Breeden. I’ve wanted to see webcomics business guys like Khoo and Karlsson on stage for a while so this one looks good.

Lessons from Thursday at San Diego Comic Con:

• The Lovely Ladies of Lulu are making the rounds. Given the growing prevalence of their company in producing webcomics collections, keep an eye open for them at future shows. Also, if you hold a panel on self-publishing solutions and say something like, “There’s no internet-driven solution for self publishing,” expect Annie and Leah to start some.
• Phil Foglio has copies of the latest Girl Genius collection! Review of Agatha Heterodyne and the Clockwork Princess sometime in the coming week. Additionally, Foglio’s Buck Godot stories will be coming to the web! Psmith will likely be dumped in all at once, to be followed by Zap Gun For Hire and a newly-colored Gallimaufry a page at a time, like Girl Genius. No immediate date, unfortunately.
• Also in the review queue: Paul Taylor’s Wapsi Square collection, Sparkling Diplomacy, The Retribution Index, Flight III, The History of Webcomics, and assuming Customs gets their shit together, Epic Legends of the Sword Kings.
  Update: Customs did not get their shit together, so purchase and review ASAP; on the plus side, I got to meet the PA Booth Babes (Brenna, Kara, and Theresa) as I repeatedly popped over to ask about the book, and they all rule.
• Check one more item off my list of things to do before I die: drink amazing single-malts with the greatest bartender in the world, Tycho, Scott McCloud, and Lore.
• Cool Thing of the Day: At Webcomics 101: Getting Started, SDCC session room volunteer Dan LaFever and I got to talking; Room 3 has a rated capacity of 150 people, and we were full up. In response to the question, “Are you here primarily because you like the work of somebody on the panel, or because you want to make a webcomic?”, the response was about 20 people for “fan” and 130 for “I want to make a webcomic”. Lots went on at this panel, and we’ll have a full debrief on it later.
• Possibly Cooler Thing of the Day: Alfred, God’s own bartender, on a particularly wonderful single-malt (and please bear in mind that I cannot properly reproduce his beautiful speech rhythms): “It was if angels were pissing on your tongue.”
  Update: Saturday night, Alfred continued his magic, culminating in the sharing of a small bottle of pure single-malt magic. “I want to kiss you square on the mouth,” I told him. He laughed heartily, as if he hears this sort of thing all the time. He probably does.

Friday Sessions of Note: Blank Label Comics at 10:30 to 11:30 am, Dumbrella at 2:30 to 3:30, and Webcomics 102: Finding Your Audience with Bill Barnes, Gabe & Tycho, R Stevens, Scott Kurtz, and Kristofer Straub.

So I was checking out all of today’s updates and such and such, when I came across today’s A Softer World. Now this is why I love this comic. Offensive, vulgar, and just a tad controversial, A Softer World never ceases to amaze me. I suggest checking out the comic simply because it focuses on everyone’s favorite pastime, masturbation.