Or, alternatively, Angry Twinkie (thank you, Dan O.) asks, Where are the reading suggestions? I’ve been lax in my webcomics reading lately, between crazy work things and impromptu astronaut suit photo shoots (it’s actually a Selk’bag, which is kind of awesome), but I also had this horrible moment where I thought, Okay, what do I read now? I have a handful of things I follow, but…what now? It’s been about a year since I started posting here and I need some recommendations. What are you reading lately? What’s caught your eye and is worth checking out?

From time to time I also go poking through the emails; if you click that little ‘let us know’ link over there on the right, those emails generally come to all of us. Periodically I go through and start clicking away; last week that process worked too well, but this week I thought I’d go looking through the older emails that were still lurking in the inbox. Dash Shaw’s quirky, image-heavy Bodyworld jumped out at me from the outset because of its extraordinary color work. It updates once per week, and the story is taking me a little while longer to get; it reminds me, both narratively and visually a little of Dan Clowes and a little of David Lynch (both good things). There’s a blog, of course, for updates and other images (check out the cool Inversions Drawing Game, inspired by Scott Kim), plus some mostly-print-only other artwork.

I feel like he’s an artist I should have run across earlier than now, given his range of publishing and his lengthy history working in self-publishing. Still, point for webcomics: this exposure via his webcomic to his other comics work (a 700-page book?!) is a fairly major boon.

Anyway, you tell me: what should I be reading now, hunkered down in my warm spacesuit in my cold apartment?

Dear Mayor and Police of Boston,

Randy Milholland would like you to not be “a pack of sobbing pussies“, and also for the Mayor to not sound so much like Muttley. Thank you.

A Concerned Citizen,
The Fleenplex

PS: Never forget!

Dear People In Charge Of The Eisner Nominations,

I’m glad to see that this year’s criteria for “Best Webcomic” explicitly specifies “professionally produced long-form original comics work posted online”, which should hopefully eliminate offerings that update like six pages in a year (read down, you’ll find it).

Please give every due consideration to Ursula Vernon’s Digger because nominations means that she throws open her archives to non-subscribers, and I really want people to see how ridculously awesome her work is.

In fact, I’m going to call on Vernon, The Swedish Gabe-Lover, and The Real-Life Perky Goth to all send their URLs to jackiee (Estrada, that is), who has an account at Mindspring (dot-com, that is). Trust me, you’re producing Eisner-grade material. Include Minus and Girl Genius from last year’s list (sadly, the “long-form” requirement would seem to disqualify Phables this year), and you’ve got an unassailably strong slate of nominees.

Thank you,

Gary Tyrrell,
Editor, Fleen

Dear Readers of Goats Who Wonder About This Alfred Guy,

Yes, he really is that awesome. Twins, send your dating resumes to the Gaslamp Quarter in San Diego. He’ll get ’em.

Gary

So I thought that yesterday’s Sheldon was just an innocent lark, a minor mindgame on the part of Arthur. Then Jon Rosenberg went and ruined it all for me with his wicked reimagining. Which leads us to today, and it seems like Dave Kellett has upped the malevolence level a little in response. Thanks a lot guys — there’s one more thing I can never enjoy again.

In altogether more wholesome news, let’s see what’s up south of the border. John Campbell writes:

hi gary!

i thought you might be interested to KNOW: hourly comic day 2008 is this friday, when a bunch of people all make a journal comic every hour and then post them on the hourly comic forum. the current year’s will go here, and you can see past years here. the page that kind of explains it is here. it is a neat way to see how different people spend their day, and it makes me feel better about spending a goddam month doing it. ALSO a couple other people have kept up with me this year, making full months of hourly comics of their own. these people include: ryan peq, max key, and joel bradbury. okay that is all!

Wait, convincing others to join him in his descent into madness? Less wholesome than I initially thought.

Found a link at ¡Journalista! that may potentially be of interest to webcomickers trying to make a professional “go” of things: Hervé St-Louis looks at self-publishers in the comic game, and is of the opinion that they don’t have good business skills, and should leave business to those who know what they’re doing.

There may be parts of St-Louis’s thesis that are unique to non-web publishing, but we at Fleen are pretty firmly convinced that comics self-publishers and webcomickers are pretty much in the same niche, and we’re aware of a number of webcomickers that handle business pretty well. In fairness, St-Louis isn’t done (his article continues next week), so for now we’ll recommend it as an opportunity for webcomickers to carefully reflect on their business skillsets, and to honestly evaluate where they fall on the I can do this myself to I need help spectrum. Aduz can’t come soon enough.

In other news, mckenzee writes to inform us that many of the group of webcomickers to be found at What The Hell Con are North Carolina locals, and they’ve been meeting over robot juice on a regular basis for a while now. And when webcomickers get together, one thing is sure to result: lots of cool art (although there is a high probability that much of it will viciously attack the good character of the Brad Guigar).

ANYway, this impromptu group, the North Carolina Web Comics Coffee Clatch, have released their first anthology, now available at an internet near you thanks to Lulu (also of North Carolina). Rumor has it the book contains the efforts of both mustelids and vombatiformes so you know it’s gonna be good.

Quick, what else should go in the Declaration 2.0?

Hosting troubles are not enough to deter Meredith Gran. The transition of Smiling Innocent Lil’ Eve turning into Smiling Malevolent Lil’ Eve in today’s Octopus Pie only hints at the awesome waiting in the rest of the strip.

New Dresden Codak! With the False Climax of the Hob storyline out of the way, I feel some awesome fight scenes coming on.

The WCCAs have finished the open nominations for this year’s awards, and will be announcing the finalists on Friday. With any luck, that means that Karen’s pessimism will be misplaced.

There’s been a lengthy rundown of Marjane Satrapi profiles/interviews at ¡Journalista! … but how many of them have been in comics form? Mike “Culture Pulp” Russell leads the way.

In other news:

• Speaking of movies, wasn’t this an Achewood story last year? I bet in the movie there are no dudes that end up hella stabbed.

• Harknell and Onezumi are coordinating webcomics at Katsucon in three weeks, and will be conducting the extravaganza known as Epic Webcomic Win. Free stuff from more than a dozen webcomic guests! Entry form will be available at any webcomic guest table, with full details on the contest page.

• Missed it earlier this week: new Dr McNinja book announced; look for availability in about a month. Rumor has it the promised truly superior extra content will include free hugs from guest stars¹.
• Hey kids, remember Uncle Ghastly? Sure you do! His life hit a series of rough patches and the long-running Ghastly’s Ghastly Comic (often NSFW, in case you forgot) fell by the wayside. But he’s doing better these days, and has a new, Northesque journal comic to share with you. I’ve always believed that Uncle Ghastly was actually The Living Slackmaster, so be on the lookout for esoteric SubGenius wisdom as you follow his blogariffic adventures.

________________
¹ Not really.

But it looks like you get a double-shot of Anders Loves Maria today, which is odd because I’m quite angry at Rene Engström.

Wait, that’s a terrible topic sentence. Let’s back up to the beginning. I’ve been following Anders Love Maria ever since this gorgeous guest strip ran when Paul Southworth was slackin’ off (something about spawning, I dunno). Combine art that beautiful, that many webcomics cameos, and make fun of a Disney flick, and I am officially intrigued — but there was no URL associated with the strip.

So a name search led me to a blog, which deepened my intrigue; after all, we are talking about a woman who shares her most shameful perversions in comic form. And I still wasn’t to the webcomic.

And the webcomic is why I don’t think I like Rene Engström. It’s a romantic non-comedy, about Anders (photographer, in love with the idea of being in love, with a tabloid-fodder famous mom) and his girlfriend Maria (younger, less focused, in love with Anders but still able to get pissed at him when he’s an asshole). They have a comfortable relationship together when Anders drops a bombshell: he thinks they should have a baby. Maria recoils, an old girlfriend comes into the picture, Anders feels the tug of temptation, and Maria gets pregnant inadvertantly. It’s messy, they’re confused, but love wins out in the end. Fade to credits.

Yeah, that’s Hollywood’s version of romance; this is Sweden — we’ve only covered two days of story, and life hasn’t begun to get complicated yet. A brush with the law sends the couple to the far north, to Maria’s family, who treat Anders poorly (’cause let’s face it, he’s a pussy). Old crushes and old enemies enter, all concerned make bad decisions, and we’re reminded that nobody can hurt us as much as somebody you know loves you — but doesn’t like you very much right now.

And that’s where we are, on the cusp of 100 strips (my usual threshold for a review, but it appears that Anne has forced my hand; I shake my fist at her, thus!), with a pair of protagonists that I feel emotionally drained by. They act so utterly, confusingly, exasperatingly real, that I want to comfort them, scream at them, advise them, and kick their asses. Engström has put me through this wringer, leaving me enraged and empathetic towards her creations at the same time. The last time a character left me this deeply conflicted, he wore a red ski cap and a Speedo (for the record, that’s a very good thing to remind me of); seriously, I halfway believe that Rene Engström is really just a front for Wes Anderson. There is a precedent, after all.

One last thought — I’d emailed Engström earlier in the week that I was possibly going to hold this review to sometime past strip #100; I was waiting for a point of resolution in the story to say, Okay, here’s a good break, jump in. She pointed out that I might be waiting for a while if I was waiting for these latest emotional wounds to close — they aren’t even fully open yet.

And that right there is why I adore this strip — just like real life, there are no clear intervals in the story, there is no upswell of music at the end of the reel, there never will be a neat resolution where everybody gets to go Awwwww. There’s just more life and the choices we make, and I guess I really do like Rene Engström after all. Read Anders Loves Maria, and you’ll like her, too.

I am so late to this party.

It comes highly recommended from both way back (check out the text underneath the comic) and new. Partially, I was immediately struck by how pretty the strip is (I mean, look at this beautiful thing). But as I read through the archives (and it’s new enough that you can read through in one sitting, though you might not want to do so at work if you work in the States), I found myself far more captivated by the changes in style. Sometimes there’s some pencil extras, and I kind of love how she intentionally posts really different styles from time to time. Like this cool one. And sometimes in Swedish too! (and also here).

I’m having a tough time pinning down exactly what it is I like so much about Anders Loves Maria. It’s one of the few webcomics I’ve seen in a while where everything’s working together in a compelling, charming way. Much of it evokes other work I like; it’s a little reminiscent of Scene Language in the way the characters interact, and visually it’s a little like Scary Go Round in places. The characters are great, and I’m excited to be caught up with the archives since it seems like there’s a lot yet to come with the webcomic and with the story. (Go look already, willya? ‘Cause I’m not going to ruin how it unfolds; it’s best if you start at the beginning and work your way forward.)

I’m also totally taken with her writing. While there are occasionally a few minor errors, I think they completely add to the strip’s charm and take nothing away. I’m smitten with the strips written in Swedish, but let me just give you an example of her writing, because I think it’s beautifully written and speaks particularly well to the kind of vibrancy and personality you’ll see in her work:

Rene Engström is a Swedish-Canadian cartoonist-lady living far too close to the arctic circle for her liking. Rene is (for all intents and purposes) married to a lovely man who has blessed her with 2 beautiful children. They all live together in a cute, old house in Brunflo, Sweden. They have a huge vegetable garden and apple and cherry trees and all sorts of berry bushes and a strawberry patch. So when Rene is not making comics, she is most likely catching up on sleep or playing with her family in the garden, picking fresh fruits and vegetables.

The cast page is one of the best ones I’ve seen in a while. Anna, the character you see above, reminds me a little of Sydney from Dykes to Watch Out For (that’s a good thing, folks). The design is crisp, the site easy to navigate; nothing’s overwhelming…and why aren’t you reading through her archives already?

When I started my trawl this morning it looked like a light day. Then lots of stuff popped up.

• Round numbers! Octopie #100 just went live, with extra backstory goodness Everybody dance!
• Fluffmodeus?
• Promoted from the comments thread so it’s more widely seen: McKenzee points out that the same weekend as Atlanta Comics Expo, Guildford College in Greensboro, North Carolina will be hosting the totally free What The Hell Con, which will feature a whole passel o’ webcomickers, including the omnipresent Jennie Breeden, the squidalicious Leah Riley, the recently re-networked Christopher B Wright, and many more. If I remember my con schedule, WTHCon is the one where Jennie Breeden abuses college boys at the geek auction (instead of abusing kilt-wearing boys with a leaf blower). Rumor has it that a webcomickin’ lady friendly with Mustelidae lives in the area, so keep your eyes open.
• Touché, Mr Malki !, touché! And I am pleased to note that the movie also did not suck; it’s a magical day of my dreams coming true. Note to self: making last-minute suggestions to certain creators works. I resolve to only use this power for awesome.

Today brings word of a new convention of interest to webcomics afficionados, courtesy of Greg Carter:

Brought to you by the fine organizers of Dragon*Con, Atlanta Comics Expo is the south’s newest celebration of comics, illustration, gaming, costumes and Asian Pop Culture.

Come out February 8 — 10 and meet some of your favorite artists and writers including webcomic creators Gina Biggs (Red String) and Greg Carter (Abandon).

In other news:

• Six years of diseased imaginings delightful comics were celebrated by Andrew Bell (aka The Worst Most Awesomest Person In The World) yesterday. Webcomics as a whole took the opportunity to pray that before year seven is done, the correct cocktail of antipsychotics will rid us all of this menace Bell will achieve the massive financial success that he is clearly due.
• It’s been a long week, but in just a few hours, David Malki ! will release his latest (not quite) feature length film, Expendable. You know what I’m looking forward to, even more that the Justin Pierce DVD/poster artwork and the Straubulent soundtrack? The production company card.

  I mean, everybody of a certain age remembers this, right? Those few seconds meant that something seriously way cool was about to happen on your TV. Well, I want the credit that reads Wondermark Enterprises to wow the adult me in the same way that A CBS Special Presentation wowed the kid me in his footy pajamas.

  Oh, and for the movie to not suck. That’d be a bonus. But mostly the credits thing.