The webcomics blog about webcomics

Smile! You’re On The Bookshelf!

So Raina Telgemeier‘s all finished with the Babysitters Club series, which means nothing from her for a while, right? Nope! We get SMILE in 2010!

Scholastic has acquired Smile, Raina Telgemeier’s charming coming-of-age memoir written in comic format, currently scheduled for publication in 2010. Smile has been posted as a weekly comic on Telgemeier’s website and is about growing up, dealing with friends and crushes, and the dental drama that ensues after a trip-and-fall mishap.

Better yet? It’s gonna be in COLOR. There’s no part of this that isn’t awesome except for one little detail: the webcomic is basically on hold. Much like Kean Soo’s Jellaby, the conclusion of the story (a good 80 – 90 pages that have yet to appear online) will appear only in print.

On the one hand, that many pages would probably take until 2010 to run (remember, Raina’s got to go back and color the whole thing). On the other hand, I want to read the story, dammit (I already know how it turns out, in that Raina’s smile turned out awesome, but still). So let me just set aside $14.95 now (or whatever we’re using for economic exchanges in 2010 — soup ‘n’ old clothes, perhaps) and start countin’ the days. ONE …

On any other day, this would have been my lead, but oh well: whatever you might have heard of his personal temperment or thought of his various returns from retirement, it’s a safe bet that a solid majority of today’s webcomickers were influenced by Berke Breathed and Bloom County. So it’s a little significant to hear that he’s making Opus grow up for good, and that the ultimate fate of the scrappy penguin will only be revealed online. In other news, today’s installment at GoComics just happens to be the second of two that got me hooked on Breathed’s work way back when. Funny coincidence, innit?

[…] two of the nicest people in indy/webcomics you’re ever likely to meet. Between this and the publication pickup of Raina’s SMILE: A Dental Drama, it’s turning out to be a very good year for the kids from […]

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